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THE PRISONER OF WINDSOR

or The King's Spit

A musical comedy by Justin Butcher and Harvey Brough. Written and directed by Justin Butcher; Music by Harvey Brough. Inspired by The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.

Leicester Square Theatre, London - 20 May - 11 Jun, 2011 (season)

Synopsis

Created fresh in the weeks following the Royal Wedding, with a format (extremely) loosely based on The Prisoner Of Zenda.

The Queen and Prince Philip, together with Kate and Wills and the Archbishop of Canterbury – along with, for no particular rhyme or reason, George Galloway and Geoffrey Rush – are all represented in the run-up to the big day. Harangued by a sweary Irish foreman, this motley crew tend to Kensington Palace gardens in a state of mildly mutinous discontent before Prince William, all stuttering dread about his impending marriage, lurches into their company for a spot of late-night soul-searching and shed-brewed spirits. Wills looses his nerve as the voice coaching lessons from someone not unlike Lionel Logue (the man who cured King George VI's stammer in the film The King's Speech) fall on deaf ears.

As luck would have it, one of Prince Philips’ early eastern European excursions have resulted in a line of look-a-likes in the Southern Romanian region, and, by uncanny coincidence a recent immigrant and lowly Palace gardener, Romulus is found to fill Wills’ shoes. Given a crash-course in Plato’s Republic by a shabby Romanian called Romulus, Wills allows the latter to act, Cyrano-like, as his go-between – wooing Kate on his behalf. But in a case of mistaken identity, la Middleton falls for the foreigner – who snogs her at the altar to the strains of Jerusalem.

Can he fulfil a nation’s hopes and rekindle the ailing heart of broken Britain?

Cast: