English Kings Killing Foreigners

Realfake Theatre is delighted to announce that following a critically acclaimed short run at Camden People’s Theatre in 2024, English Kings Killing Foreigners now transfers to Soho Theatre for a five-week run from 16th September – 18th October

This playful and inventive piece of theatre skilfully combines a refreshing exploration of English culture with a frank and bold criticism of the institution of Shakespearean theatre in the UK – examining its ongoing role in the crafting of British national identity and its enduring power on the British stage. Philip Arditti (he/him) and Nina Bowers (she/they) write and star in this darkly funny and unflinching look at nationalism, intersecting identities … and Shakespeare’s Henry V.

English Kings Killing Foreigners is inspired by Nina and Phil’s real-life experience of starring in several productions of Henry V including at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2019 where they first met. Both performers bring their extensive backgrounds in British theatre, and of performing Shakespeare, to this ‘silly show about serious things’.

With arts funding under pressure, new writing faces increasing challenges in breaking through pushing many theatres to star-led Shakespeare productions for reliable box office draws. The work explores what it means to cast a Global Majority actor in a Shakespeare play, and how a non-white, non-English performer fits into this most English of hero-making stories. The show interrogates the politics of representation in what some now call a post-woke cultural landscape and considers the personal cost to the artists at its centre.

Shakespeare has increasingly become a focal point in wider debates around national identity, cultural heritage, and inclusion. English Kings Killing Foreigners enters this conversation with playfulness, staging the tensions between reverence and critique, and asking who gets to lay claim to Shakespeare in 2025.

Time: 6.45 pm [3pm Matinee performances on Saturdays]
Running time: 70 mins