Study royal part in play (9)
I believe the answer is:
portrayal
'study' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'royal part in play' is the wordplay.
'in play' is an anagram indicator (letters play around).
'royal'+'part'='royalpart'
'royalpart' with letters rearranged gives 'PORTRAYAL'.
(Other definitions for portrayal that I've seen before include "Picture or description of royal prat" , "painting" , "It depicts" , "drawing" , "Depicting characters" .)