{"id":731520,"date":"2026-08-08T13:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731520\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:34:14","slug":"cant-stop-smiling-the-wait-is-over-for-epic-game-of-thrones-prequel-the-mad-king-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731520\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Can\u2019t stop smiling!\u2019 The wait is over for epic Game of Thrones prequel The Mad King | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

A winter of discontent is anticipated by the embattled characters in Game of Thrones, but the Royal Shakespeare Company is banking on a glorious summer with its world premiere<\/a> of a prequel to the hit TV series based on George RR Martin\u2019s fantasy novels.<\/p>\n

The new play, The Mad King<\/a>, arrives 30 years to the month after the original publication of A Game of Thrones, the first novel in Martin\u2019s series A Song of Ice and Fire. It has a gala performance in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday evening in a reconfigured Royal Shakespeare theatre with a capacity of 870. Tickets for the entire run, priced from \u00a310 to \u00a395, have already sold out.<\/p>\n

The RSC\u2019s co-artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey<\/a>, have said that the epic play \u2013 which lasts 225 minutes including an interval \u2013 \u201cthrillingly imagines events teased in the books\u201d and they trumpet it as the \u201cfirst-ever stage production arising from the canon of George RR Martin\u201d. The Mad King bookmarks, handy for all those doorstop novels, are on sale in the RSC gift shop \u2013 although scripts for the play are not currently purchasable, leading to heated discussions on message boards about its plot, which involves familiar characters from the houses of Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Baratheon and Martell. To \u201cprotect the magic\u201d of the play, theatregoers with cameraphones are asked to cover them with stickers labelled \u201csworn shield\u201d, a reference to a dutiful oath in Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n

Noah Ritter as Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Harmony Rose-Bremner as Lyanna Stark in The Mad King. Photograph: Johan Persson<\/p>\n

The play is adapted by Duncan Macmillan, who has worked on it for almost a decade. In the programme, Macmillan writes that its focus is a jousting tournament at Harrenhal \u2013 \u201ca major event in Game of Thrones lore that has never been depicted on the page or on screen\u201d. Macmillan added that he and director Dominic Cooke wanted to make a play \u201cfor fans and novices alike, a piece of theatre that sits inside the wider history but is also complete in its own right\u201d. Macmillan and Cooke were first announced<\/a> in 2021 as collaborating on a Game of Thrones project for an unspecified venue.<\/p>\n

The Mad King \u2013 which unfolds on a cross-shaped stage with the audience all around and has a cast of three dozen \u2013 weathered a challenging period of previews. Five early performances were cancelled, with an announcement that \u201cthe actors, creative and technical teams [were taking] the additional time necessary to progress and refine the work in real time, owing to the ambitious and epic nature of the production and, as a knock-on effect of unforeseen delays to the fit-up process\u201d. (A spokesperson for the RSC said that affected audiences were contacted to arrange refunds or to rebook their tickets.)<\/p>\n

The demand for tickets, alongside a sold out run of The Cherry Orchard<\/a> (starring Helen Hunt<\/a> and Kenneth Branagh) in its Swan theatre, will help fill the company\u2019s coffers after what Evans described last year as a \u201cperilous situation\u201d<\/a>. A recent restructure has enabled the company to reduce its cost base by \u00a32.8m a year. The RSC said the process was \u201cnot solely based on reducing our financial overheads\u201d but also to help it \u201cwork as effectively and efficiently as possible and to position us to generate additional income to invest in the creation of theatre and learning through theatre, which is our founding purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n

From left: Daniel Evans, Duncan Macmillan, George RR Martin, Tamara Harvey and Dominic Cooke. Photograph: Seamus Ryan \u00a9 RSC<\/p>\n

By transforming its stage into the world of Westeros for The Mad King, the RSC hopes to welcome audiences who are new to either its Stratford venue or to theatre more generally. In recent years, it has drawn upon existing IP with considerable success, including an adaptation of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro<\/a>, also powered by imaginative puppetry like The Mad King. My Neighbour Totoro opened at the Barbican in London in 2022 and transferred to the West End<\/a>, where it will end its run in January.<\/p>\n

Among the audience at the Royal Shakespeare theatre on Friday night was Game of Thrones<\/a> fan Edward, 29, from Dudley, who said he had visited Birmingham Hippodrome and Wolverhampton Grand but it was his first time at the RSC. \u201cI just can\u2019t stop smiling \u2013 it\u2019s so fun,\u201d he said of the production, despite initially being \u201cshocked when I saw the run time\u201d. Another newcomer to the building was Aisha, 28, who had travelled from London. A fan of the franchise, Aisha said the play \u201ccompares very well to the books and films \u2013 they\u2019ve done an amazing job\u201d.<\/p>\n

Michael Shaeffer as King Aerys II Targaryen in The Mad King. Photograph: Johan Persson<\/p>\n

Rachel, 51, comes to the RSC a couple of times a year, most recently for an adaptation of Roald Dahl\u2019s The BFG<\/a>, and said that mixing Shakespeare with such adaptations provides \u201ca good variety\u201d. Diane, 66, was there to see The Cherry Orchard and expressed frustration that the company\u2019s two main stages had no Shakespeare this summer (a trimmed version of A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/a>, made with the Unicorn children\u2019s theatre, is on at its third venue, The Other Place<\/a>.) \u201cFor me personally it\u2019s disappointing. I know that sounds snobby, I don\u2019t mean it to, but the name\u2019s the Royal Shakespeare Company \u2026 The balance is off. It\u2019s a little bit of a betrayal of their name and raison d\u2019etre but I\u2019m well aware they have financial difficulties.\u201d Diane acknowledged: \u201cI\u2019m probably the only one on earth who hasn\u2019t watched [the TV series] \u2026 I know there\u2019s a following that\u2019s very loyal.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the fan forum Theatreboard<\/a>, people who had seen The Mad King variously praised its \u201cfull Shakespearean tragic resonance\u201d and \u201cShakespearean-ish cadence\u201d, with one saying that it was \u201con a par in theatrical terms with the London 2012 opening ceremony\u201d.<\/p>\n

Steven and Bethany, both 30, recently moved to Stratford and saw the RSC\u2019s Henry V<\/a> earlier this year. Bethany arrived \u201choping for a dragon tonight!\u201d and Steven said that they hadn\u2019t expected the RSC to stage such a production. \u201cIt brings in more people who wouldn\u2019t usually come to the theatre,\u201d said Bethany. \u201cThey might enjoy the experience and see what else is on offer as well. With it being in Stratford, rather than London, you\u2019re bringing in different crowds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d expect to see it on the West End rather than Stratford,\u201d agreed Steven. The RSC\u2019s Hamlet Hail to the Thief<\/a>, another bid to draw new audiences by accompanying the tragedy with a Radiohead album, opens in London this winter. The Mad King is widely tipped to follow hot on its heels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A winter of discontent is anticipated by the embattled characters in Game of Thrones, but the Royal Shakespeare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}