The Prince (play)

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The Prince
Written byAbigail Thorn
Date premieredSeptember 2022 (2022-09)
Place premieredSouthwark Playhouse, London
Original languageEnglish
SubjectTransgender identity, unhealthy relationships, Shakespeare

The Prince is a play by Abigail Thorn in which characters from Shakespeare's plays realise they are trapped in a performance and try to escape. The play ran at the Southwark Playhouse from 19 September 2022 to 8 October 2022 and was released on the streaming service Nebula. The filmed version was first released on 16 February 2023.

Most of the play is set within Henry IV, Part 1 and depicts several characters from that play. The programme notes compared The Prince to the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which shows Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters.[1] It garnered several awards from The Offies and BroadwayWorld as well as mixed reviews from the press.

Plot[edit]

Loosely following the plot of Henry IV, Part 1, the play begins with the Battle of Holmedon Hill. Hotspur, a hypermasculine knight who does not yet realise that she[a] is transgender, leads the English forces to victory against the Scots. But tension runs hot between Prince Hal and Hotspur, who mocks the Prince and derisively calls him a woman. Though Hotspur intends to execute the captured leader of the Scottish forces, she hands over her prisoner to Prince Hal when he agrees to convince his father to ransom her brother-in-law, who had recently been taken prisoner by the Welsh rebels.

Meanwhile, supporting characters from the medieval storyline reveal that they are in fact modern women trapped inside a multiverse of Shakespeare's plays. Sam, a manager at a care home, explains to Jen that she encountered her in Julius Caesar and decided to rescue her, implying that she did so because they are both trans women. Sam shows Jen a magical map which shows that they will be able to escape to the real world at the end of Henry IV, Part 1. The two are separated when Hotspur recruits Jen to look for a lost sword. Jen finds the sword, but when Hotspur shakes her hand in gratitude, the two experience a painful, magical force which propels them suddenly into different scenes.

Jen finds herself reunited with Sam, Hotspur finds herself at her home, where she has fallen off a ledge while recounting the battle to her wife, Lady Kate. Later, in London, Henry IV refuses to ransom Hotspur's brother-in-law. Prince Hal intimates to Hotspur that the King is angry because Prince Hal is gay. The Prince, secretly in love with Hotspur, suggests that she stay in London and ask the King again to ransom Hotspur's brother-in-law once his mood improves, but Hotspur rebuffs him. Instead, Hotspur, her father, and her uncle agree to join forces with the Scots and the Welsh and rebel against King Henry IV.

Though Sam warns her not to, Jen talks to the Shakespearean characters, especially Hotspur, in an attempt to rescue them as Sam had done for her. As a result, the plot begins to deviate from Henry IV, Part 1 and the characters slip into modern dialect, question their medieval perspectives, and become more aware of the set and audience. Eventually, all characters find themselves in Hamlet, rather than Henry IV, Part 1. Sam confesses that she was trapped playing a more minor character in Antony and Cleopatra and for a longer time than she had previously said. Jen apologises and the two agree to make their way back to Henry IV, Part 1.

Back in Henry IV, Part 1, Lady Kate brings Hotspur her sword in preparation for the Battle of Shrewsbury. Still confused by the earlier metatheatre, Lady Kate asks what is happening, but Hotspur tells her that it was just a dream and that she should return home. When she balks at this explanation, Hotspur yells at her that a woman's place is to obey the commands of her husband. After Lady Kate leaves angrily, Hotspur's uncle informs her that King Henry IV and Prince Hal have unexpectedly arrived to fight in person and that her father is sick and cannot join the battle. Though Hotspur's uncle advises against it, Hotspur decides to press on.

The battle commences and Sam and Jen make their way through it to find the exit. As Hotspur seeks out Prince Hal to duel him, the exit appears and Jen tries to convince Hotspur to come with them. Sam leaves the play, but Hotspur does not want to leave and Jen stays, promising to help Hotspur when the play restarts. Hotspur and Prince Hal fight, but when Hotspur is mortally wounded, she does not recite the lines that Prince Hal expects her to and dies unheroically.

Once again at the beginning of the play, Hotspur, King Henry IV, Prince Hal, and Douglass play their respective parts, but hesitantly, and slip in and out of their original lines. When King Henry IV eventually asks "where are we?" Jen greets them and helps them escape.

In the final scene, Sam and Jen reunite awkwardly and Jen gives Sam the magical map. Jen invites Sam to join her for lunch with some friends, but Sam declines. Jen then meets with Hotspur, who is dressed as a trans woman, as well as Hal and Kate.[3]

Production[edit]

The Prince was written by Abigail Thorn, creator of the YouTube channel Philosophy Tube. Thorn started the channel in 2013 and it became more creative, incorporated stories, sets and costumes, after she graduated drama school.[4] In 2019, she raised money for the charity Samaritans through a livestream in which she read from the Complete Works of Shakespeare.[5][6] In addition to a YouTuber, Thorn is a mainstream actor.[4]

As a student, Thorn began drafting The Prince out of an interest in exploring the character Hotspur and writing scenes in verse. Later, after realising she was trans, Thorn redrafted the play through a queer lens and worked with dramaturg Donnacadh O'Briain.[7]: 1 minute in [8]: 6 minutes in 

The premier production of The Prince was funded and filmed for the streaming service Nebula.[4] The play was performed in the round at the Southwark Playhouse, an Off West End venue. It was directed by Natasha Rickman and starred Thorn herself as Hotspur.[9] The majority of the production's cast was trans, and much of the crew was queer as well.[8]: 28 minutes in 

Previews of The Prince began on 15 September 2022 and the play ran from 19 September 2022 to 8 October 2022.[10] The filmed version incorporates recordings of two different nights, as well as close-up shots captured without an audience.[7]: 27 minutes in  It was released on Nebula on 16 February 2023 and a remastered version was released later that year.[11][12]

Tickets to the play sold out, and even before opening night the production broke even by driving subscriptions to Nebula.[4] During the play's run, Thorn needed a security officer for protection from a stalker.[13]

Themes[edit]

The Prince has themes of transgender identity, political radicalisation and unhealthy romantic, platonic and familial relationships.[14][15] Thorn described it as "like The Matrix if it was written in 1600".[15] Thorn said that Shakespeare is fit for trans allegory as performers were originally all male and the writing is dense with jokes about people dressing up as or being confused for other genders.[16] Thorn's character, Hotspur, is written by Shakespeare as having idealised manhood.[17] Thorn did not see it as a "queer play", but more generally one about "characters who are trapped for all sorts of reasons". She compared it to a period of concealing her gender on Philosophy Tube.[16]

Critical reception[edit]

The play received three stars out of five in reviews from The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, BroadwayWorld, The Stage and The Reviews Hub. A reviewer for The Guardian, Kate Wyver, said that it is an "ambitious if slightly feverish exploration of transgression and transition within Shakespeare's plays" that "playfully questions the performance of gender and the roles we are all assigned". Wyver found that the plot mechanics brought "frustrating confusion", but that the audience would "see these characters anew" through a queer lens, and that "glee oozes from Thorn's playful juggling of Shakespearean language around identity and performance".[18] Claire Allfree of The Daily Telegraph analysed that The Prince fit well with Shakespeare's use of metatheatre and themes of gender and performance, as well as Shakespeare criticism such as the Victorian interpretation of Prince Hamlet as a woman. Allfree compared it to the plays I, Joan (2022) and & Juliet (2019) and reviewed that it was "inclusive and constructive" but had an "untidy energy".[17]

Cindy Marcolina, writing in BroadwayWorld, approved of The Prince's "sacrilegious approach to Shakespeare" in which Thorn explores characters' psychology "with a contemporary lens" but "remaining surprisingly faithful to the original" and re-appraises Shakespeare's language around gender and bravery "under queer lights". However, Marcolina believed that "the scripted ending stands on wobbly feet and the framing never gets the explanation it needs to be satisfyingly convincing".[9]

The Stage's Frey Kwa Hawking praised the multiple trans characters and the ambition of the play, with its "tantalising ideas about the performance of gender and duty". Hawking also praised the "brittle, uneasy energy" that Thorn brought to her character, Hotspur. However, Hawking criticised aspects of the pacing and narrative, such as the "text-heavy" nature, "creaking plot mechanics", length of time spent in Shakespeare's play in the second act. Characterisation was also critiqued by Hawking, including the "under-explored" nature of Kate and Hotspur's marriage and "thinly sketched" relationship between Jen and Sam.[19] Oliver Pattrick of The Reviews Hub similarly praised the transgender themes while criticising the writing in another three-star review, summarising that "it feels like the script needs a further rewrite to realise its full potential". Pattrick suggested that the plot mechanics be made "less prominent", that Hotspur's discovery of her womanhood needed more "depth" and slower pacing, and that the humour was overly reliant on "incongruity of blunt modern slang as a response to elaborate archaic language".[1]

Awards[edit]

Year Award Category Nominee Result
2022 The Off West End Theatre Awards[20] ONEOFF Abigail Thorn Non-competitive
BroadwayWorld UK / West End Awards[21] Best Leading Performer in a New Production of a Play Won
Best New Production of a Play Won
Best Supporting Performer in a New Production of a Play Mary Malone Won
Tiana Arnold Nominated

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Although Hotspur is initially referred to with he/him pronouns by other characters in the play, Thorn refers to the character using she/her pronouns in the script's stage directions.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Pattrick, Oliver (20 September 2022). "The Prince – Southwark Playhouse, London". The Reviews Hub. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  2. ^ Thorn, Abigail (2022). The prince. Modern Plays. London: New York. ISBN 978-1-350-35237-7.
  3. ^ Thorn, Abigail (2023-04-20). The Prince: Special Edition. Nebula.
  4. ^ a b c d Burrows, Joel (2024-01-11). "From YouTube to Hollywood: How Abigail Thorn Is Changing the Film Industry". The Latch. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  5. ^ Brewis, Harriet (26 August 2019). "PhilosophyTube: YouTube star set to raise $100,000 for charity by livestreaming complete works of Shakespeare". Evening Standard. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  6. ^ Eribake, Adeole; Low, Valentine (28 August 2019). "Complete works of Shakespeare livestreamed for charity". The Times. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  7. ^ a b The Prince Q&A: An Evening at the Theatre With Abigail Thorn and Jessie Gender (Video). 2023-04-20.
  8. ^ a b The Prince: Behind the Scenes (Video). 2023-04-20.
  9. ^ a b Marcolina, Cindy (20 September 2022). "Review: The Prince, Southwark Playhouse". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  10. ^ Thomas, Sophie (2022-08-01). "Shakespeare-inspired play 'The Prince' to open at Southwark Playhouse". London Theatre. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  11. ^ THE PRINCE Official Trailer (2023), retrieved 2024-03-14
  12. ^ Wiskus, Dave (2023-04-24). "The Prince: Special Edition". Nebula Blog. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  13. ^ Capon, Tom (23 September 2022). "'I have over 1 million YouTube subscribers but I had to come out as trans on my own - my friend said it's a curse'". MyLondon. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  14. ^ "Changemakers 2022: Social Justice". The Big Issue. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  15. ^ a b Crosara, Nic (16 June 2022). "With sword fighting, lesbianism and a magical doorway, Shakesqueer lovers have a lot to look forward to". Diva. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  16. ^ a b Iftikhar, Asyia (20 September 2020). "YouTuber and playwright Abigail Thorn explains why Shakespeare has 'so much trans potential'". PinkNews. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  17. ^ a b Allfree, Claire (20 September 2022). "The Prince, review: Hotspur becomes trans in this larky spin on Shakespeare and identity". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  18. ^ Wyver, Kate (22 September 2022). "The Prince review – playful romp through Shakespearean roles". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  19. ^ Hawking, Frey Kwa (20 September 2022). "The Prince review". The Stage. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  20. ^ "Abigail Thorn #Offies 2022 #NewNoms: ONEOFF Special Award". The Offies. 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  21. ^ "Winners Announced for The 2022 BroadwayWorld UK / West End Awards; MOULIN ROUGE Wins Best Musical!". BroadwayWorld.com. Archived from the original on 2023-01-30. Retrieved 2024-03-11.

External links[edit]

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