"CHARLES THE KING," written by Maurice Colbourne and produced by him at the Lyric Theatre.  Typescript with considerable ms annotations corrections re-workings stage directions etc. Contained in a hard backed folder which also contains original set layouts a series of 8 bw 10x8 photographs of the set designs and a few related pieces including a photograph of the original production of Bernard Shaw’s ‘St Joan’ with a typewritten note that the premier actually took place in New York a year before the official premier with Sybil Thorndike in London. ‘Charles the King’ was a complicated production relating to the trial and execution of Charles I. It was a success running for seven months at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1937 before being transferred to America and Canada.   Social Credit REVIEW ;  It is the best historical play I have seen for a great many years. It has a large cast, and no fewer than thirteen scenes, covering a period of about twelve years. These thirteen scenes contain a skeleton survey of that critical period beginning with the emergence of Cromwell and ending with the execution of  Charles I. There is a central theme running through the play, the imminence of the Money Power. Already paper notes are making their appearance as a new form of currency invented by the Goldsmiths. The King finds he is dependent on the Money "Power because he cannot raise money for his armies .without Parliament. Only Parliament can vote the money, and even Parliament when it comes to the point can be thrown out by the men who hold the purse-strings. There is a striking passage towards the end of the play where the King warns Cromwell of the danger he foresees of England falling under the heel of Finance. The play is brilliantly cast, with Barry Jones as the King, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies as Queen Henrietta and Maurice Colbourne as Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of Strafford. The portrayal of Cromwell seemed to me a little too coarse and plebeian. After all, the death mask of the Protector ill said to have borne a striking resemblance to the late Viscount Allenby. But Mr. George Merritt made him a blustering vulgarian. In any case, it is a play nor to be missed.