The RSC is currently staging a production of Game of Thrones: The Mad King, which is a prequel for the books and has George RR Martin’s involvement. I took my 18 year old to see it last week and it was amazing. He doesn’t know any of the Game of Thrones world but does a lot of fantasy role play and is an anglo Saxon re-enactor so I knew he’d love it and he did.
They have completely refigured the RSC’s main theatre for this, which has been a HUGE undertaking. There is now a cross shaped stage with 4 big doors for entrances and exits. There’s also a huge metal looking arch which has different moving parts in it that open to expand the set. The engineering and planning that have gone into this is amazing. Sadly I think it’s also why it will make it very difficult to see the production tour but there are a few venues in London I can think of that could manage to stage it. It is being filmed but usually the RSC filming is for archive purposes only not to be released as a pro shot.
We have been asked not to talk about the plot so as to avoid spoilers and no photos are allowed in the theatre but opening night was on Saturday and they’ve finally released some production shots that give some idea of the scale and quality of the production. I’ll link to the RSC’s insta post later.
Because of the staging every seat gets a unique view. If you’re front 3 rows of the stalls you’re at stage level and looking up but you’re so close to the action that you’re practically involved. They’ve angled a lot do seats so that the seating is pretty much in the round. And they’ve added seats at what is usually the stage end. I don’t know how good the view is from some of these when the iron throne is on stage though as it’s MASSIVE.
The casting is fantastic. The Dorne characters are Black! Hurray! Why couldn’t they to series have done that (I know). The Starks are so well cast that they look like a family. I’ve seen Michael Abubakar (Ned Stark) in Macbeth at the RSC and Harmony Rose-Bremner (Luanda Stark) in the Years and both were excellent again. This isn’t a star studded cast but everyone is so good. Callum Woodhouse as Robert Baratheon and Mariah Gale as the queen are both standouts.
The costumes are amazing. The textiles are STUNNING. The white cloaks have amazing quilting(?) patterns embossed into them as does Robert’s tunic. The construction of the armour is really thoughtful and whilst it’s mostly plastic it looks great. The royal outfits are sumptuous and highly decorated. It’s just beautiful and if nothing else I hope the costumes go on display after the production ends.
And then there’s the puppetry. My son had seen War Horse the previous week so you may think that he’d be over seeing full sized horse puppets with people riding them but no, he was excitedly telling me the differences between them and what worked so well in the different productions. Here we have jousting. On life sized horse puppets. It’s very clever. I’m not going to go into too much detail about how they do but it’s very thoughtful about actors and puppeteers safety but also visually effective.
There are lots of fights. Some are stagecraft sword fights. Some are highly stylised. All are thrilling. They use cut lighting (cut to dark whilst the actors move into a new position) a lot, which I was very grateful for as they could easily have gone with strobe lighting in those scenes and that would have been very uncomfortable for me.
My one criticism of the story is that it’s restricted in how the characters can grow and progress because they have to get to specific points. But I guess that’s what fan fiction is for. If you know the books/tv you know what’s coming. If you don’t, like my son, then the story still works.
It’s an amazingly ballsy production that gripped from the opening scene all the way through its 3hr 40 run time. The run is currently sold out but returns do show up so if you can make it to Stratford upon Avon then keep and eye on the box office for tickets. I booked two shows and both of us are desperate to see it again.
