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Cast
- King George David Haig
- Queen Charlotte Beatie Edney
- Prince of Wales Christopher Keegan
- Duke of York William Belchambers
- Lady Pembroke Charlotte Asprey
- Captain Fitzroy Ed Cooper Clarke
- Captain Greville Orlando James
- Papandiek Beruce Khan
- Fortnum Ryan Saunders
- Braun Peter McGovern
- Prince's Footman/Archbishop Simon Markey
- Prince's Valet Gary Mackay
- William Pitt The Younger Nicholas Rowe
- Lord Thurlow Thomas Wheatley
- Henry Dundas Richard Hansell
- Charles James Fox Gary Oliver
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan Patrick Moy
- Sir George Baker Peter Pacey
- Dr Richard Warren Madhav Sharma
- Sir Lucas Pepys John Webb
- Dr Francis Willis Clive Francis
- Margaret Nicholson Karren Winchester
- Dr Willis's Servant Chris McCalphy
- Dr Warren's Servant Haseeb Malik
Creative
- Author Alan Bennett
- Director Christopher Luscombe
- Producer Theatre Royal Bath Productions
- Composer Malcolm McKee
- Designer Janet Bird
- Lighting Oliver Fenwick
- Associate Lighting Designer Tim Mascall
- Sound Mic Pool
- Voice & Dialect Coach Martin McKellan
- Movement Jane Gibson
- Fight Director Andrew Ashenden
- Casting Director Sarah Bird CDG
- Assistant Director Alison Convey
Tickets
Stalls: Premiums: £65, £49.50
Dress Circle: Premiums: £65, £49.50 & £45 (RV)Upper Circle: £39.50 & £32.50 (RV)
Balcony: £25 & £20 (RV)
Performances
Monday - Saturday: Eves 7.30pm
Thursday & Saturday: Matinees 2.30pm
Running Time: 2h 25m (including interval)
THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III
Book online or call 0844 482 9671(24hrs) Tickets from £25.00
A STANDING OVATION AT EVERY PERFORMANCE!
David Haig gives the performance of his life as King George III in the West End premiere of Alan Bennett's smash-hit comedy THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III. Originally premiered at the National Theatre in 1991, the play went on to become an international theatrical sensation and was made into an award-winning film. Rarely performed because of its huge cast, this new production took the public and critics by storm when it opened at the Theatre Royal Bath in August 2011 and is now playing at the Apollo Theatre for a strictly limited season.
In spite of a catalogue of accomplishments - he founded the Royal Academy of Arts, was a passionate advocate of science, literature and music and fathered fifteen children - George III is best remembered today for his bouts of unbridled lunacy. Subjected to the appallingly cruel medical treatment of the day and assailed by power struggles between politicians and his scheming son, George remains throughout an intensely sympathetic character - melancholy, moving, witty...and finally triumphant.
This epic production features a stellar cast alongside David Haig including Clive Francis, Beatie Edney and Madhav Sharma.
Apollo Until 31st Mar 2012
Press Coverage
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*****
Sheer madness to be anything other than totally bowled over
Full Article The Times
-
*****
crazily clever, madly watchable
Daily Mail
-
****
Royally good
Evening Standard
-
****
Christopher Luscombe's elegant, lucid, and deeply felt production grips throughout and Haig is simply magnificent, both in his madness and his deeply moving recovery
Daily Telegraph
-
****
this is intelligent, witty and moving West End fare with a big, compassionate heart. It features a most extraordinary performance from David Haig, an actor who radiates sweetness, terror, comedy and tragedy, often in the same line
The Guardian
-
****
At the heart of it all is Haig's exceptional, humane performance as the monarch. He makes the part his own: full of brisk, beaming energy at the outset, he draws that energy into increasing mania as his illness upends his behaviour
Financial Times
-
****
A majestic Haig rules the stage, magnificent and profoundly moving.
The Mail on Sunday
, The Times
*****
Sheer madness to be anything other than totally bowled over
A grand sight is David Haig, in royal tailcoat and wig, leaping to his feet in manic enthusiasm to urge an unseen royal orchestra to give Handel more wellie. Seconds later he is out of control, assaulting his son, restrained by horrified flunkies to whom touching an anointed king is sacrilege. This is the tipping point between George as an earthy, eccentric but effective monarch, keen on mills and manufactories and pig farms, and the persecuted madman he will become during winter 1788: that first outbreak of mental illness, caused by porphyria, which Alan Bennett's famous play reimagines. That we care deeply, so early, about the King's plight is a tribute to Haig's economical warm-hearted establishment of a normal self in the minutes before. That we never lose that affection, through all the horrid humiliation that follows, is the mark of one of those treasurable moments when a familiar, well-liked actor rises to a new level of greatness. Cosily uxorious with his sweet tubby Queen (Beatie Edney), testy with the morose Pitt (Nicholas Rowe), Haig moves seamlessly between comic absurdity and a still Shakespearean dignity in torment: " I am a coffin king". He can turn on a sixpence, altering helpless sobs with the hurling of abuse at his doctors ("Bumsucker! Lincolnshire lickfingers!"). The recovery scene where he reads Lear is comic yet profoundly affecting, even better than Bennett's text deserves. He also pulls out a violent, heel-drumming, flinging, roaring physicality I have never seen in him before: it shocks all the better for its proximity to the didactic bufferdom which not long before was beamingly telling the chambermaid that the coal in her warming pan came from Wales. What is brilliant in Haig's interpretation is that the same tension, whether didactic or crazy, runs through both his states. Alan Bennett's play became iconic with Nigel Hawthorne's performance under Nicholas Hytner, and that memory will not fade. Yet Christopher Luscome's direction, originally for the Theatre Royal Bath, makes it anew. It is rare to meet a production so flawless. The rapid pace is unimpeded by Janet Bird's diagrammatically simple old-gold set, suggesting palatial spaciousness with empty frames. Even the very wigs tell tales: the physician Baker (Peter Pacey) sports a topknot as fuzzy as his medical ideas, Willis from Lincolnshire is neat and plain, Pitt has a tight puritanical headpiece, and the effete butterball Prince of Wales (Christopher Keegan, a scream) struts around beneath three yellow cottage loaves and a limp ponytail. See? The delight is so seamless that the very wigs enhance it. Above all, a perfect control of mood, especially in the final scenes, swings us to and fro uncannily between relieved laughter and choked pathos. Nothing is overdone, nothing neglected: political echoes (spendy Whigs, cautious Tories) are there but never milked. In the huge cast every personality stands out, from the nervously kindly pages to Sir Lucas Pepys the doctor, forever gazing raptly into a chamber pot. Superb
, Daily Mail
*****
crazily clever, madly watchable
, Evening Standard
****
Royally good
, Daily Telegraph
****
Christopher Luscombe's elegant, lucid, and deeply felt production grips throughout and Haig is simply magnificent, both in his madness and his deeply moving recovery
, The Guardian
****
this is intelligent, witty and moving West End fare with a big, compassionate heart. It features a most extraordinary performance from David Haig, an actor who radiates sweetness, terror, comedy and tragedy, often in the same line
, Financial Times
****
At the heart of it all is Haig's exceptional, humane performance as the monarch. He makes the part his own: full of brisk, beaming energy at the outset, he draws that energy into increasing mania as his illness upends his behaviour
, The Mail on Sunday
****
A majestic Haig rules the stage, magnificent and profoundly moving.
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