Watching Royals was like watching a children’s picture book come to life. It plunges its audience into an imaginative world that blurs the lines between children’s games and adult wars.
Royals tells the story of six year-old French princess Isabella de Valois and her marriage to the thirty year-old king of England, Richard II; a marriage meant to end a war. A childlike playfulness is carried throughout the piece, lending lightness to otherwise heavy subjects like war and child brides. While definitely making the content appropriate for children, it takes the reality of the situation and completely turns it on its head, making it almost farcical at points.
The play begins with young Isabella (played by ten year-old Kalliope Rice), caught up in her own world, reveling in her childhood. We quickly discover that her parents (played by Tom Heath and Emma Hall) have agreed to wed her to the king of England to end the war between France and England. It is a bizarre world we have been introduced to, with bright costumes and larger than life characters that set the scene up very well.
Later, when Isabella has married the king (also played by Tom Heath), we find them to be quite the team – their ease with words and each other quickly outshining their competitors. There was a familial comfort in their relationship, their care and respect for one another almost tangible amidst the games and wars.
Despite the strong dynamic between the two, the set up of each scene – dictated by rules about the text in the scene – did distract from the actual content. While creating a fun environment, it did seem to detract from the world created at times when the focus of the scene was on the games instead of the plot.
However, it is not just the games that grabs the audience’s attention – actress Emma Hall is a performance in herself, doubling up as both the queen and later, the king’s cousin who plans to usurp the throne. Characters come alive in her physicality, immediately raising the energy levels and stakes within the scene.
Angourie Rice, who plays the teenage Isabella, presents an impressive performance tackling the heavy material that develops. She brings a new maturity to the character of Isabella, which allows for the seriousness of earlier issues to resurface. This marks a strong turning point in the play and forces the audience to address the heavy issues involved.
Luca Pascucci, who plays the nephew of the king, Hal, allows for calmness and softness in his performance. While still a little rough around the edges and low on energy, Luca and Angourie support each other well in their quiet scenes together. By the end of the play, while the audience is definitely on the side of the queen’s newfound self-assurance, the scenes come to a quiet close, lacking the bubbling energy of earlier scenes.
Ultimately, the tame nature of the world that Royals inhabits doesn’t do justice to the full possibility of the concept but engages us none-the-less.
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