The Royal Shakespeare Company announced Wednesday that it will produce a play based on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels: Game of Thrones: The Mad King, “a sweeping new stage epic” set shortly before the events in Game of Thrones, the book and HBO TV adaptation. The play, scripted by Every Brilliant Thing writer Duncan Macmillan, will premiere later this year in the UK’s Stratford-on-Avon, with priority tickets on sale as of April 14. Here’s the theater’s description of the show:
A long winter thaws in Harrenhal, and spring is promised. At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revellers speculate about who will contend. But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the bloodthirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound.
Family bonds, ancient prophecies, and the sacred line of succession will be tested in a dangerous campaign for power. Who will survive? Who will rise?
‘Wars aren’t won by those with most cause, but whose story’s best told.’
Song of Ice and Fire fans are familiar with the saga of the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, and how his chaotic rule and the events of The Great Tourney at Harrenhal led to an uprising dubbed “Robert’s Rebellion.” Robert Baratheon, the king of Westeros when Game of Thrones begins, led the charge against Aerys, and Jaime Lannister, serving as Hand to Aerys at the time, ultimately struck him down, gaining the title “Kingslayer” in the process. (Aerys is also the father of one Daenerys Targaryen.)
The same fans also may be aware that a stage version of this story has been in the works for many years — a Broadway production of the Mad King story was announced as being in development as early as 2021, but never materialized. This is clearly the same show — that version was also being adapted by Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, who helmed the Royal Shakespeare Company version.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin released this statement about the play:
When I first wrote Game of Thrones, I never imagined that it would be anything other than a book. It was a place for my imagination to exist without limits. To my great surprise, it was adapted for a series and viewers have been able to enter the world of my imagination through the medium of television. For my work to now be adapted for the stage is something I did not expect but welcome with great enthusiasm and excitement. Theatre offers something unique. A place for mine and the audience’s imagination to meet and hopefully create something magical.
For me, the RSC was the obvious choice when thinking about putting a Game of Thrones story on the stage. Shakespeare is the greatest name in English literature, and his plays have been a constant source of inspiration to me and my writing. Not only that, he faced similar challenges in how to put a battle on stage, so we are in good company. It will be thrilling to watch the events of this new play unfold in a live environment. Duncan’s masterful script honours the world completely, and I am so excited for both fans of the series, and perhaps people who have never picked up one of my books, to experience this new story in a theatre.
The Royal Shakespeare Company does seem a better fit than Broadway for a large-scale, narratively ambitious stage show expressly dealing with court intrigue and rebellion against a ruler. That’s a favorite theme of many of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, from Macbeth to Julius Caesar to Hamlet to Richard III. In most of these plays, the rebellion also leads to war — a difficult, expensive thing to put on stage at any scale. But the RSC has a great deal of experience with exactly this kind of story.
Macmillan and Mad King director Dominic Cooke also released a statement to that effect, saying, “From the beginning, Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies have been our primary reference for the ambition of this production, so the RSC feels like a natural home.”
It’ll be interesting to see new versions of characters like Jamie Lannister, Robert Baratheon (when he was younger and in his prime), and other key players, like Ned Stark and Tywin Lannister, on stage. Sadly, this means we’re probably going to have to wait a lot longer for a classic-style Broadway version of a Game of Thrones play, something that’s less Hamlet and more Wicked, with big, belting musical numbers and kicklines of knights in armor. At least we’ve always got Spamalot for that.
