RIBA president-elect has written a two-hour play based on rivalry between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
RIBA president-elect Chris Williamson has revealed that he has written a stage play which has been nominated for an award in Rome.
The two-hour historical drama, called Legacy, is based on the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci during the height of the Italian renaissance in the early 16th century.
It has been selected for best script in the Rome Prisma Film Awards, which includes nominations for both screen and stage productions, ahead of an awards ceremony in Rome next month.
Williamson, who will become the next president of RIBA in September, said the subject matter was “something he had been thinking about for a long time”.
The WW&P co-founder started writing the play during the covid pandemic, completing a first draft which he then revisited and refined last summer.
He told Building Design the three-act play was about “the futility of thinking about your own legacy”, and was partly inspired by conversations he had had with leading British architects including Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimsahw and the late Richard Rogers.
“The big names are always thinking about what their legacy is going to be, what they think they should have done and what they had done,” he said.
“People are still talking about Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but still can’t decide who was better.”
The competition between the two artists had echoes in recent architectural history, he said, particularly in terms of rivalries between starchitects including Foster and Rogers.
The play starts in Florence, where both artists were based in the first years of the 16th century, before moving to Rome during Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel.
Williamson’s award nomination was congratulated on LinkedIn by various built environment names including former RIBA president Jane Duncan and Crossrail International non-executive chairman Keith Wallace.
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