Mike Bartlett’s ambitious future history play King Charles III has taken home the highly anticipated Virgin Atlantic Best New Play Award at the Olivier Awards 2015 with MasterCard.
The win marks Bartlett’s third Olivier Award-winning creation, following his triumph earlier tonight for his office drama Bull and 2010’s Cock, both of which triumphed in the Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre category.
Talking to us following his second win of the night, the playwright said: “It feels great. What’s lovely for me is Bull and King Charles III are very different plays and I think when audiences go into a theatre they don’t want to know what they’re going to see; they want something completely new and unexpected. The fact that two completely different pieces of work have been recognised is completely thrilling.”
Directed by Rupert Goold, King Charles III premiered at the Almeida Theatre last summer before transferring to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre following a host of five star rave reviews.
Led by Olivier Award nominee Tim Pigott-Smith, the controversial piece won near universal acclaim for its combination of a riveting story of Prince Charles’ imagined time on the throne, the lyrical verse employed by Bartlett to bring a Shakespearean grandeur to the piece and Goold’s exceptional and thrilling staging.
Writing about its West End opening performance, Official London Theatre described the production as “an intelligent, poetic, thoughtful, witty, emotional drama packed with perfect performances”.
King Charles III is coronated 2015’s Best New Play tonight over Mark Hayhurst’s Taken At Midnight, Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, and Mike Poulton’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.
