ABSTRACT
Of all of Bartlett’s plays King Charles III (2015) has earned him the most accolades, as it made its way from the small theatrical space of the Almeida Theatre to Wyndham Theatre on London’s West End to finally his first and so far only Broadway production in New York City. Because of the play’s success, the BBC asked Rupert Goold, the play’s director, and Mike Bartlett to film it for television. On March 10, 2017, the film aired on the BBC to be followed four days later on PBS (the United States’s public broadcast network). The film version of King Charles III ended up being 90 minutes long while the play text clocked in one hour longer at 150 minutes, not including an intermission. What changes did Bartlett and Goold make to shorten the play into a viable television production aimed at a much larger range of consumers? This chapter will discuss the transition of King Charles III from the stage to the home screens of British and American viewers by looking at how Kate, Diana, and Jess change in the film version.
