Hampstead theatre, London
Robert Lindsay excels as Franklin D Roosevelt in Richard Nelson’s fascinating retelling of King George VI’s diplomatic visit in 1939
The 2012 film Hyde Park on Hudson – fictionalising a 1939 visit by King George VI and his queen Elizabeth to a summer home of President Franklin D Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor – was a modest success, seen (more happily by Republicans than Democrats) as an oblique take on the Clintons: the president hiding a complex private life while his wife was more intelligent and independent than some folk liked.
The film’s screenwriter Richard Nelson treats the material for the third time (he also did a 2009 BBC radio drama) in this related but rebooted stage play, providing a fascinating example of how context can change content. Inflected by this week’s 250th birthday of American independence, a play in which a monarch comes crown in hand on a Foreign Office mission to secure American support for the impending European war also has resonances of the shakiness of Nato under President Trump whom King Charles recently met on a state visit.
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