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The Arts Intel Report

The 47th

Bertie Carvel as Donald Trump in The 47th.

Mar 29 – May 28, 2022
The Cut, South Bank, London SE1 8NB, UK

In Mike Bartlett’s new play, The 47th, it is 2024 and Donald Trump is running for president, again. The English playwright turns the upcoming American election into a Shakespearean drama: Bertie Carvel, who plays Trump, speaks partly in iambic pentameter, and Simon Williams’s bumbling and mad Joe Biden has been likened to Lady Macbeth. The play begins when The Donald drives onstage in a golf cart. It ends with a face-off between him and Kamala Harris (played by Tamara Tunie). Expect a cameo from the shirtless shaman in the horned headdress. —Jensen Davis

Photo: by Marc Brenner