New King Palmers, aka The King's Accounts (2023)

The action of the play is located in and around the court of a future King of England, which has moved to its country retreat for a joust re-enactment. Although all characters and events are approximated to an era of late capitalism, the court is shown as more akin to a Camelot-Tudor amalgam. Accepting that this makes the King and his court a fantasy of sorts, there is nevertheless symbolic meaning in it. King Chads’s is a life circumscribed by precedent and tradition, and the ancient backdrop he is etched against is a concrete representation of the ancient system of power a country like England is rooted in. In varying degrees all the courtly characters, and some of the other characters too, reflect these two worlds – the modern, late capitalistic one, and a feudal world of deference and pageant. The two forces acting on the court are, on the one hand, a groundswell of opinion towards republicanism, and on the other protection of vested interest. These tensions are dramatised throughout.