Jordan Tannahill’s new play, “Prince Faggot,” has an eye-catching title and what he calls a “provocative proposal”: What if Prince George of Wales, who is second in line to the British throne, grew up to have a life as complicated, messy and sexual as the gay playwright, or any other queer person?
But, as David Greenspan, one of the show’s stars, put it during a phone interview: “The most highly charged part of the play is the title.” The critic Jesse Green agreed. Despite the title and premise, “the real shocker,” he wrote in his review for The New York Times, is that the play “is thrilling.”
Now the production, which had a sold-out Off Broadway run this summer at Playwrights Horizons, in a co-production with Soho Rep, has transferred to Studio Seaview, where it is now scheduled to run through Nov. 9. It charts the fictional story of a college-aged George introducing his boyfriend to his family. But rather than a straightforward narrative, the play is framed as six performers dissecting themes of power, colonization and sexuality as they hop in and out of character.
In a recent interview, Tannahill said that its self-referential structure was part of his first draft in 2020, which he wrote after finding a childhood photograph of himself that reminded him of a viral 2017 image of Prince George gasping giddily.
Then the idea expanded into a story of queer and trans performers putting on a play and examining their experiences with the monarchy and sexuality, Tannahill said. “In a way, there were these intentional place holder monologues that I could refine and tailor to the performers who we ultimately ended up casting.”
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post The Play Is Fiction, but Their Monologues Are (Partly) Their Own appeared first on New York Times.
