Currently running at Playwrights Horizons and co-produced with Soho Rep, “Prince Faggot” is a story within a story within a story about a fictional British Prince George/Pips (a hapless John McCrea) who is queer and meets and falls in love with Dev (a riveting Mihir Kumar) a South Asian Brit from a colonized nation George meets at Oxford. Performers 1 through 6 perform the roles of all the characters as well as playing themselves in the present. Their lives parallel and/or counterpoint the lives of the six queer and trans performers in the cast. The action is episodic, and character driven without the constraints of time or place. Complicated? Could be, but under Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s careful direction, the action moves forward seamlessly and understandably.

The possibility that Prince George (now or then or ever) is a member of the LGBTQ community is not relevant. What is important are the layers of storytelling Jordan Tannahill has created that all resonate with the enduring questions about identity, agency, accountability, survival, and colonization. All the Royals are portrayed in the narrative” William (K. Todd Freeman); Kate (Rachel Crowl); Princess Charlotte (N’yomi Allure Stewart); even Edward II (David Greenspan). Dev consistently reminds the Royals about their colonization of India and consistently reminds George how, despite their love for one another their future as a married couple is less than plausible. Dev and George squabble. The Royals squabble with them and each other and defy any sense of accountability for the past or for their present insignificance.

Throughout the narrative, each member of the cast displays their childhood photograph and shares an important aspect of their lives as queer and trans individuals coping with discrimination, abuse, and live on the fringes of society. The ensemble cast authentically pull back the layers of disappointment and emotional trauma. Their scenes seem to diminish the Royal Family’s vicissitudes of the British monarchy.

The Royal family’s importance has diminished as their currency as a ruling family has also waned over the centuries. They are on the fringes of the world stage. Unfortunately, in the current American political climate, the marginalized members of the queer and trans communities have been brutalized by government cutbacks and the lack of sympathy or empathy for queer and trans folk. They are in danger of being not only further marginalized, but also of being forgotten at the time their survival is in jeopardy. Verbal and physical abuse are on the rise as are suicides committed by trans and queer folk of all ages.

If what happens to these communities become irrelevant to politicians and members of the larger community, we winder “what rough beast, its hour come round at last.