[A ROYAL AFFAIR
opens in Cleveland on Wednesday November 21st exclusively at the
Cedar Lee Theatre.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
In the late 1700s a king, a queen, and
a doctor form a tragic love triangle that has far reaching social and
political ramifications in A ROYAL AFFAIR.
The story begins when Queen Caroline (Alicia Vikander) agrees to
marry King Christian VII of Denmark (Mikkel Følsgaard), seeing it as
the culmination of everything she was raised for. However she is
unprepared for the King's erratic behavior and callous treatment of
her. After dispensing with her most important duty as queen,
providing Christian with a male heir, Caroline does her best to live
her own life. Christian lives his own life as well, setting out on a
tour of Europe that mostly involves getting drunk and visiting
prostitutes.
Many
in the court believe the King is insane, but based on what we see
it's just as likely that he's bored at not having anything to do.
That changes when his new personal physician Doctor Johann Friedrich
Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) begins sharing his enlightenment era ideas
with both King and Queen. With Struensee's encouragement, the King
finds the backbone to start making actual decisions about his
kingdom. Struensee shares more than just ideas with Caroline, and the
two embark on a passionate affair. All three work together to bring
progressive ideas to the Danish government, but as they disrupt the
status quo it's no surprise that they make enemies along the way. And
with Struensee's lack of discretion, it's not hard for those enemies
to learn of the affair and use it against him.
