Diary: Megxit drama foreseen by Mystic Mike (Bartlett)

Readers, you may not have noticed – it hasn’t been covered widely – but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, have announced they plan to relinquish their roles as senior royals and work towards financial independence. (Don’t worry though, Meghan has confirmed she is keeping her patronage of the National, so there’s a chance you might rub shoulders with her yet.)

But while everyone loses their mind over the minutiae of #Megxit, some realised that Harry’s decision to turn his back on the monarchy had been foreshadowed by the playwright Mike Bartlett.

In his hit 2014 play King Charles III, theatre’s unofficial soothsayer created a roguish Prince Harry character who intends to rebel against his birthright to build a new life with the girl he loves.

An eerily prescient passage posted on Twitter by the play’s director Rupert Goold shows Harry wishing to “cast off the princely burden of my birth”, and seek “a job, and house, and car and maybe wife”.

“I’ll have no role official and not prince / I’ll live a life of normalcy, within / This country, rather then atop the mound / Unearned and with a target on my back.”

Spooky, eh? Though Tabard hopes the real Harry has more success in breaking away from ‘the firm’ than Bartlett’s fictionalised prince, who gives up the girl and begrudgingly reverts back to royal life. All eyes on what Bartlett will predict next…

tabard@thestage.co.uk

Maggie Brown: Edgy King Charles III drama is still causing a stir at the BBC