Play about 'gay' Prince George causes outrage: Off-Broadway show depicts 11-year-old's fictionalised future using drugs and engaging in BDSM - as audiences say it's 'creepy fan-fic'
Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill's 'tragicomedy' is a work of speculative fiction that is set in the year 2032 and imagines what would happen if Prince George, currently 11, came out and fell in love with an Oxford educated Indian man.
The show opened on May 30 and has proven a surprise hit in New York City, where its sold-out run at the Playwrights Horizon theatre has now been extended.
However, Prince F****t has also drawn criticism for its offensive title and graphic depictions of sex and drug use, considering it makes no effort to fictionalise its lead character who is based on a 'real child'.
It has also sparked backlash because the play opens with its cast discussing the viral photograph of Prince George excitedly inspecting a military helicopter in Hamburg when he was four.
Tannahill's play revisits the discourse around the photograph before propelling its cast members - who play alternate versions of senior Royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales - into a hypothetical future.
The highly-speculative show is so explicit that audience members are required to turn their phones off and place them in lockable pouches for the entirety of its 90-minute runtime, as the actors playing George and his 'boyfriend' Dev appear naked and simulate kinky sex on-stage.
At one point, reports The Telegraph, George's character (performed by British actor John McCrea) appears in bondage and expresses his sexual fantasy of 'being walked like a puppy'.
When one Reddit user asked whether the play would be suitable viewing for their 14-year-old daughter, an audience member who watched Prince F****t shared that it depicts the future King as being 'tied up in ropes hanging from the ceiling and blindfolded for a bondage scene, while his naked boyfriend simulates urinating on him' at one point.
The comments were posted under a message praising the 'wonderful play' on the platform's Broadway sub-Reddit, as the user noted it was the 'perfect' release for Pride Month.
Noting the cast is made up entirely of queer performers - Princess Catherine is portrayed by transgender actress Rachel Crowl - they wrote: 'Overall, I loved this play, especially as a gay man myself and at the start of Pride month.
'Great show, written very well, with a superb cast that showed their vulnerability openly on stage. I highly recommend it.'
However, the post divided opinion in the comments section, as one person admitted the play's premise gave them 'the ick'.
'Interesting concept, really grossed out that the playwright decided to use the basis of the main character on a real person, and one who is a minor no less,' their message read. 'Feels wrong and is giving me the ick.'
Several others agreed, with one audience member admitted they felt 'kind of dirty' for watching the show.
Multiple Reddit users condemned Tannahill's decision not to change the names of the royals, with one person asking: 'Is it right to essentially write fan fiction about a real child?
Tannahill's play has divided audiences, with several people calling the show out for being 'creepy fan-fic' about a 'real child'
'Would it have been so hard to thinly veil the commentary by changing the names?'
'Not just fan fiction, explicit fan fiction where are depicted as being into fetish and do hard drugs,' another added.
A third comment read: 'Yeah, this is…not something I feel okay about. He's eleven.'
Another person agreed, writing: 'Anything about the sexuality of someone who is a real child is way, way, way, out of bounds to me.'
Yet another Reddit user asked: 'Why are we allowing gay kink fantasy plays about a currently eleven year old boy to exist??? This is so creepy.'
Others defended the play and it's provocative subject matter, with one viewer noting the point of Tannahill's work was to question 'why we sexualise children in hetero normative ways so comfortably...or even force the hetero narrative' when it's clear they're queer.
'You start talking about queer childhood, they're gonna brand you a groomer,' says two-time Tony nominee K Todd Freeman in the show's opening monologue. The actor plays a reimagined version of George's father, Prince William.
Another Reddit user, who also left Playwrights Horizon impressed by the production, added: 'I thought that the opening monologue really worked so well in how it connected that online debate from years back to how so many of us queer people had that experience with our own childhood photos—of seeing a photo of our kid-self and being like "damn, it really was obvious even from that young an age, huh..."'
Among the play's fans is Madonna, who attended one of its recent performances at Playwrights Horizon and later shared a photo with the cast on her Instagram Story.
Rachel Crowl, who brings Tannahill's Kate Middleton to life, reposted the image on her feed with the caption: 'So, um, Madonna came to the show last night and she just posted this photo she took with us. Amazing. Mind blown. She was lovely!'
It's also received glowing reviews from critics, with The New York Times' Jesse Green writing: 'If the playwright means to shock, mission accomplished.
'But here's the real shocker: The play...is thrilling.'
The Wrap's critic Robert Hofler described Tannahill's new play as 'meta-theater at its best and most thought-provoking' in his review.
However, he noted, it's unlikely the play by the critically-acclaimed writer behind the BBC's gritty drama The Listeners (that is based on his 2021 novel) will get a showing in the UK.
In addition to the fictionalised gay storyline involving Prince George and its caricatures of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the play name-checks Meghan Markle and also makes 'pointed references' to Prince Andrew's personal life, The Times reported.
When asked by the newspaper whether the production is likely to travel across the Atlantic, a spokesperson declined comment.
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