It is the tale of a leader’s ruthless ambition, cynical skullduggery and brash mendacity as his country is gripped by crisis. Whatever could have drawn Boris Johnson to the role of Richard III when he played the part as a schoolboy at Eton? A new comedy presented at the Edinburgh fringe this summer will imagine what happened before and after the real-life event when the future PM took to the stage as Shakespeare’s brazen villain.
Adam Meggido was inspired to write the play, Boris the Third, after reading an article that described the 18-year-old Johnson’s blustering performance in the school production. Eric Anderson, a former headteacher at Eton, once summed it up thus: “He hadn’t had time to learn the lines, so had pasted them up behind various pillars. The whole performance consisted of him running from one side of the stage to the other and failing to read it properly.”
