Royal Visit to The Tempest at the RST

On Friday 22 May His Royal Highness King Charles III attended a performance of The Tempest at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The image shows him greeting Kenneth Branagh who played Prospero in a production directed by Richard Eyre (an ex-President of the Shakespeare Club) watched by Tamara Harvey who spoke to the Club during the 2024-5 season. Charles and Kenneth met in 1984 when Kenneth was preparing to play Henry V in his first RSC role. He was the youngest person to play the part in Stratford. He asked the then-Prince about the monarch's burden of responsibility, as articulated in the "Upon the king" speech.  Some years later he performed Hamlet for the Company. Both Henry V and Hamlet were later turned into successful films. The King's love of Shakespeare is well known, from playing Macbeth in a school production, to being the President of the RSC and regularly attending the theatres in Stratford, to appearing in the 2016 Gala in which he memorably spoke "To be or not to be" onstage accompanied by many actors who have played the role.