Created by George R. Martin
Adapted by Duncan Macmillan
Set design by Chloe Landford
Composer Will Stuart
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
Tuesday 11th August 2026, 19.15
CAST
A cast of thirty-six.
Michael Abubaker – Eddard Stark
Elizabeth Ayodele – Princess Elia Martell
Maxim Ays – Ser Jaime Lannister
Miles Barrow – Benjen Stark
Islam Boukazz – Howlad Reed
Luke Brady- Brandon Stark
Marty Breen – Catalyn Stark
Sebastian Charles – Owen Merryweather, ensemble, puppeteer
Adrian Cristopher – Prince Lewyn Martell, ensemble, puppeteer
Ronan Cullen- on stage swing, puppeteer
Fred Davis, Qarlton Chelsted, Maester, ensemble, puppeteer
Edem-It Duke – Oberyn Martell
Simmi Egbejumi-David – ensemble, puppeteer
Daisy Franks – Cersei Lannister / Golda Whent / ensemble, puppeteer
Mariah Gale- Queen Rhaella Targaryen, Lady Stella Whent
Richard Hansell- Grand Maester Pycelle
Daniel Hawksford – Sir Barristan Selmy
Lewis Howard – ensemble, puppeteer
April Nerissa Hudson – ensemble, puppeteer
Tom Larkin – Lord Whent / Wisdom Rossart, ensemble, puppeteer
Chelsea Marie -ensemble, puppeteer
Kel Matsena – Ser Arthur Dayne
Shaun Yusuf McKee – Ser Gerald Hightower, ensemble, puppeteer
Alexander Newland- Lord Rickard Stark
Hughie O’Donnell – Lord Varys
Huw Parmenter – Ser Oswell Whent
Noah Ritter – Prince Rhaegar Targaryen
Harmony Rose-Bremner – Lyanna Stark
Kate Rowsell- on stage swing, puppeteer
Michael Shaeffer – King Aerys II Targaryen
Tanisha Spring – Ashara Dayne
Tom Stact- On stage swing, puppeteer
Matt Tait – ensemble, puppeteer
Tzarina-Nassor – ensemble, puppeteer
Marcello Walton – Ser Jonothor Darry / Lord Tywin Lannister
Callum Woodhouse – Lord Robert Baratheon
A cast of thirty-six? I have enough trouble spelling increasingly difficult actor names but this adds difficult character names. Why is it ‘Ser’ rather than ‘Sir’? Why is it ‘Maester’ not ‘Master’? Why is it Jonathor not Jonathan? Why Eddard and Rickard? Blame George R. Martin.
The production involved re-configuring the theatre in a cross shape, which as far as I can see meant weeks of dark stage and lost revenue in peak season, then it runs for a total of six weeks. The RSC justify the production’s existence by George R. Martin’s claim that he based the concept on Shakespeare’s histories. In truth, they’re hoping it will transfer become a mega hit and run for years in London and bring in needed revenue, not that many theatres there are so easily reconfigured. The Bridge? The smaller ones with flexible space like The Young Vic or Donmar aren’t big enough to accommodate the length of stage, nor to pay a cast of thirty-six.
There are warnings that ‘souvenir’ stickers will be stuck over phone cameras. I don’t want sticky stuff on my lens and while ‘no photos’ is obviously legitimate, I think you’d have to say “we are going to put sticky gunge on your phone” when you first buy the tickets, not on arrival. This made me angry at Bath. Still, I’d printed my tickets, being irritated by people faffing about on their phones, and no one asked if I had a phone. Look at the online photos. They have decided to save all the most spectacular scenes as “theatre only. No photos.”
It attracted a younger audience profile than normal, a strong positive. If theatre relies on old farts like us, its future is limited to our life expectancy. Though the old farts do join as friends, book well ahead and pay upfront, meaning money in the bank, opt for premium seats, and eat in the restaurant, which has a poor menu this summer, unusually. There is no such thing as ‘plant based buffalo mozzarella.’
We watched a few series of Game of Thrones and then gave up on TV before the last couple of series. We even have DVDs sets of the early seasons. But we lost patience, too many characters, too many threads. Most of the time we couldn’t work out the plot, but it looked spectacular. We can’t remember much about it except that Peter Dinklage was incredible, as was Emila Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, aka The Mother of Dragons, and Sean Been as Ned Stark. We have seen a good many of the TV cast on stage: Mark Addy, Mark Gattis, Sean Been, Gwendolyn Christie, Jonathan Pryce, Jim Broadbent, Indira Varma, Tobias Menzies, Ciaran Hinds. Other appearances included Ed Sheeran and Diana Rigg.
This is a prequel with younger versions of characters in the main series. We heard sharp intakes of breath when the audience were given clues to the birth of Danaeres, Mother of Dragons, and the birth of Jon Snow. We weren’t counting references but we both knew those. I read reviews in advance and a sample of three suggests it’s set either 10, 14 or 25 years before Series One, Episode One. Make up your minds. Me? Dunno.
It’s very long indeed. Three hours forty minutes. If you have a play that’s too long (at least one reviewer said cut 20 minutes per half), then starting 4 minutes late at 17.19 doesn’t help. We came out at 11.08, so in many areas it would be after last buses and trains.
From the RSC website:
George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King is a sweeping new stage epic, written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, coming to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Tuesday 28 July to Saturday 5 September 2026. Spanning the final years before the events of the novels, this powerful drama reveals a legendary chapter of Westerosi history. Come face to face with familiar characters from the houses Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Baratheon and Martell and witness the events that set the stage for the world’s most critically acclaimed series.
Westerosi? WTFi?
IN SHORT: The king is mad. Prince Rhaegar, his son, needs to rally the rival families to agree to kill him. It takes place around a major tournament at Harrenhall, the castle the king’s ancestor had destroyed by dragons, as one does when miffed. Prince Rhaegar is married to the very pregnant Princess Elia Martell of Dorne, but falls in love with Ryanna Stark, who is betrothed to Lord Robert. Lyanna Stark, a tomboy (a word I don’t suppose you’re allowed to use) is probably the principal character.
Brandon Stark is betrothed to Catelyn. There’s a great deal of who loves whom, and by the end we have three more heavily pregnant women.
Why do they need the four way cross stage shape? The main action involves a tournament. They have full on horseback jousts from both ends. This is the most impressive part of the play, and the most impressive use of on stage puppetry I’ve ever seen. I thought Equus was good. This is a league above. Each horse needs four puppeteers inside, and they are working their socks off, let alone playing multiple other roles. It’s heavy work, as there are support puppeteers to lift off the stricken knight and waft them through the air. The choice of the neutral pronoun their is a minor giveaway. Apart from the model, the RSC are not showing photos of the best bits. The character interactions are all they want you to see in advance.
Then some knights, mounted or on foot are giant puppets, fighting each other or fighting real actors. So we see Prince Raeghar (Noah Ritter) and Lord Robert (Callum Woodhouse) sometimes accompanying and interchanging with puppet versions of themselves. This is state of the art animated puppetry.
Then there are the on foot fights with actors, as good as I’ve seen on stage battles, interspersing black outs, freeze action, slow motion, full speed real action. As spectacle this demands to be seen. The effort and co-ordination is worthy of the over-used word awesome.
Calum Woodhouse as Lord Robert
A dance precedes the tournament and that also uses freezing, and going into two person dialogues. It’s long and I’d like to have seen photos. I think they have eighteen dancing pairs.
An issue for me is the portentous cod-Shakespearean tone of the dialogue. It’s leavened by Callum Woodhouse as Lord Robert who says ‘fuck’ a lot. And ‘Fuck it’ and ‘Fuck me.’ It’s not a laugh-a-lot tale, but he drew a few. He is the rural oaf in a way, but a magnificent warrior.
There is a two page “Family Trees” in the programme including who was betrothed to whom. One review said they kept the large chart open during the play to follow. I wouldn’t bother. I assumed Ashara Dayne (House Dayne of Starfall) and Princess Elia Martell (House Martell of Dorne, but married to Rhaegar Targaryen) were sisters, though I had picked up both were House of Dorne. They’re not sisters, but my confusion doesn’t matter a jot. I could go on, but I expect you’ve fogged over and forgotten already.
In places ethnicity ties a “House” together so the three Dornes are all dark African ethnicity.
The House of Stark are much lighter skinned, but about the same as each other.
The House of Targaryen are all white haired and white. The Lannisters are white. Robert Barratheon and Howland Reed are single members of their houses and white. That was enough for me to get an idea of family relationships. I had no wish to have it made more explicit. I didn’t care.
Some attempts with aspects like white hair are designed to preview the TV characters. Others not. Michael Abubakar is a convincing Ned Stark, but couldn’t look more different from Sean Been.It doesn’t matter. Go for spirit, not lookalike.
Some mentioning it trying to give it connection to a troubled world. Not really, though King Aerys II (Michael Shaeffer) is the mad king, mindlessly cruel, and says something about ‘I may be mad but my pyromancers can destroy all your countries.’ Yes, Donald might speak in much the same style. To continue trumpeting the allegedly incontinent Trump, one noble says he’s tired of wiping the mad king’s arse.
There is a three page Glossary explaining terms and places. I looked at it over dinner before and stopped. My mind was boggled. Wargs, Bleeding Star, Wandering Crow, Cranoggmen, Summer Hall, The Isle of Faces (faeces?) No, the play has to work without reading all that guff, though “Throners” (compare Trekkies) will love it. I would say it does work sufficiently without knowing it. You can get the romantic triangles clearly enough.
OVERALL
Mark Lawson (The Guardian): This feels like a five-star production for most devoted throners but a three-star for those who haven’t seen the TV series, (He gave it 4 stars).
In terms of spectacle, action, puppetry, choreography, costume, set design, lighting, sound and music, it’s a clear five star.
Acting? Probably a five though I would have found the stilted dialogue a trial.
If you only vaguely know the characters and story, definitely knock a star off.
The length is a problem, and some of the jousting is repetitive and long, as is the fighting. However, you can’t cut there because they’re also the very best bits. At times I was irritated as dialogue interrupted the action.
****
THE BIT OTHER REVIEWS NEVER DO
On premium priced seats, which we paid for, we were front row, at the point where the main (old) stage met the stage right side arm of the cross shape. These are NOT premium or even good seats. A57 and A58- for this stage, awful.
We were seated low, cricking our necks to see up. Karen at 5 foot was greatly troubled by the footlights in front of us, which when swivelled up added a good 6 inches to try to look over. She missed all the action at floor level. She reckoned the acting was good from waist up. Then several important dialogues took place on the stage right arm, so in fact they were completely behind us. We had a wonderful view of the final Lyanna and Ned Stark dialogue, but she was lying on pillows facing us, so her face was totally invisible to the entire area opposite on the stage left side of the stalls. That’s a great pity because for me Harmony Rose-Bremner gets ‘person of the match’ award for the play. Her detailed facial expressions were superb acting. All the actors have mics, so hearing is not an issue when their backs are to you. We did get the four Starks cheering on the jousting right next to us, standing on the floor at our level and one used the step to get on the stage. I was relieved I hadn’t put my carrier bag on it. We also got a lot of the stage mist, which is plentiful at low level. It’s not like the blue smoke machines of the 1970s but we still coughed most of the night.
If you can get tickets, go upstairs to the circle! The cruciform stage at front row, front stalls level simply doesn’t work. (Except that the jousting a few feet away was incredibly powerful, almost terrifying, from our seats). Director? Go and watch from A 58, but hunker down to being 5 foot tall. I was taught that the director moves around in early rehearsal and watches from every angle. I did it with presentations and music too. Not here. The cruciform allowed tremendous action sequences, but there is a good reason why theatres don’t use it.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
five star
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage *****
Roni, Theatre & Tonic, *****
four star
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph ****
Mark Lawson, The Guardian ****
Alice Savile, The Independent ****
Gary Naylor, The Arts Desk ****
Matt Barton, The Stage ****
Jenny Ell, West End Best Friend ****
Dave Freak, Metro ****
three star
Clive Davis, The Times ***
The Financial Times, ***
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
DOMINIC COOKE (Director)
Mrs Warren’s Profession, National 2025
Rock Follies, Chichester 2023
Follies, by Stephen Sondheim, National Theatre 2019
Comedy of Errors, National Theatre 2012
MICHAEL SHAEFFER
The Grapes of Wrath, National, 2024
Girl From The North Country, Old Vic 2017
HARMONY ROSE-BREMNER
The Seagull, Chichester 2025
Hamnet, RSC 2025
MICHAEL ABUBAKER
Macbeth, RSC, The Other Place 2025
LUKE BRADY
As You Like It, RSC Garden 2024 (Orlando)
Assassins, Chichester 2023
MARTY BREEN
Playboy of the Western World, National 2026
RICHARD HANSELL
Macbeth, Trafalgar Studio 2013
DANIEL HAWKSFORD
Troilus & Cressida, RSC 2018
KEL MATSENA
Pericles, RSC 2024
ALEXANDER NEWLAND
Leopoldstat, London 2020
HUGHIE O’DONNELL
Into The Woods, Bridge 2026
King Lear, Branagh Company, 2023
HUW PARMENTER
The Motive & The Cue, National 2023
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