'Charlie' tells the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart. It is a hard hitting account, dealing with a man who is still popularly regarded in Scotland as a romantic hero. The reality paints a different picture, a flawed individual responsible for not just his own downfall, but the destruction of the lives of many.

The play begins with Charles as a charismatic young man coming to Scotland with the aim of wrestling the British throne from the ruling House of Hanover. It ends on his death over forty years later as a sad alcoholic. Throughout, it raises many issues that are highly relevant today; sectarianism, the appalling treatment of women, death and destruction as a result of war, the identity of Scotland as a nation, and the power of the monarchy.

Most Scots know of Bonnie Prince Charlie but are only aware of his short time in Scotland. Charles only spent 14 months of his life in Scotland, fleeing from there at aged 25. The play includes the next forty two years of his life as he wandered the Continent, trying to badger European monarchs for funds to mount a fresh challenge to seize the British throne. It reveals shocking details about his traumatic relationships with women and his abandonment of his only heir and her mother, his Scottish mistress Clementina Walkinshaw. She eventually fled in fear of her life, with her daughter, after many brutal beatings. Later, the Prince married his young cousin and she had a similar fate, being rescued by a servant as Charles attempted to strangle her. Not surprisingly, she too left and Charles became a bitter old man, his only solace being the bottle and his reflections of what could have been. Even the Pope had no time for this Catholic claimant to the British throne, and on Charles's death, refused to have his remains buried in the Vatican.