The Madness of George III is a 1991 play by Alan Bennett. It is a fictionalised biographical study of the latter half of the reign of George III of the United Kingdom, his battle with mental illness, and the inability of his court to handle his condition. It was adapted for film in 1994 as The Madness of King George .
The play had its premiere on 28 November 1991 at the Lyttelton Theatre of the National Theatre in London. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Mark Thompson. The play starred Nigel Hawthorne as George III, Janet Dale as Queen Charlotte and Michael Fitzgerald as the Prince of Wales, also starring Julian Wadham, Charles Kay, Adrian Scarborough, Mark Lockyer and David Henry.
After its London run, the production toured the UK and the United States, returned to the National Theatre in 1993 and was then presented in Athens and Israel in 1994. Hawthorne repeated the role in the 1994 film, earning a Best Actor nomination in the Academy Awards.
The play was staged at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in San Diego, California, from June 19 to September 24, 2010. [1]
On 18 January 2012, the play was revived at the Apollo Theatre. David Haig played George III. [2]
A further revival took place in November 2018, at Nottingham Playhouse, with Mark Gatiss as the lead. [3] This production was streamed on the National Theatre's YouTube channel in June 2020 as part of the NT at Home season. [4]
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The play has been viewed as a character study for the actor who plays George III and most reviewers attribute its success to compelling performances from the two actors, Hawthorne and Haig, who played the king. Frank Rich of The New York Times singled out Nigel Hawthorne's performance in the US tour, calling it "astonishing" and "unforgettable", but he labelled the play itself as not "one of Bennett's major works" and as being more "marketable to Broadway and the colonies". [7] Writing about the 2012 revival, Lyn Gardner said that Luscombe's production reminds us that "Bennett is not writing a royal Downton Abbey, but a play exploring appearance and reality", and that the play brings out the fact that amidst all the royal pomp the king is merely a man like everybody else. [8] In The Telegraph , Charles Spencer praised Haig's performance, comparing it favorably to Hawthorne's performance twenty years earlier, saying "it seemed an impossible act to follow, but David Haig proves every inch Hawthorne’s equal in a performance of extraordinary emotion, tenderness and humour". [9]
Writing on the 2018 Nottingham Playhouse run, Kate Maltby, writing for The Guardian notes that "Scarborough and Gatiss are electric", praising Powell for her "endearing" portrayal of Queen Charlotte. She notes that "Gatiss delivers a tour de force" in this "viscerally repulsive depiction of the gap between public and private life." even despite his descent into a "slobbering wreck" as George III. Maltby notes overall that this production is a "technically excellent production of a modern classic." gaining it a 4 out of 5 rating. [10]
The Madness of King George is a 1994 British biographical comedy drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own 1991 play The Madness of George III. It tells the true story of George III of Great Britain's deteriorating mental health, and his equally declining relationship with his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, particularly focusing on the period around the Regency Crisis of 1788–89. Two text panels at the end of the film note that the colour of the King's urine suggests that he was suffering from porphyria, adding that the disease is "periodic, unpredictable and hereditary."
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783) and then of the United Kingdom (1807–1809). The gap of 26 years between his two terms as prime minister is the longest of any British prime minister. He was also the fourth great-grandfather of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, PC, was a British lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1765 to 1778 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Thurlow. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain for fourteen years and under four Prime Ministers.
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones and Dracula. Together with Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson, he is a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen.
David Haig Collum Ward is an English actor and playwright. He has appeared in West End productions and numerous television and film roles over a career spanning four decades.
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Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop. The current building opened in 1963.
Harold Sidney Innocent was an English actor who appeared in many film and television roles.
Stephen Lowe is an English playwright and director.
Princess Sophia was the twelfth child and fifth daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Sophia is perhaps best known for the rumours surrounding a supposed illegitimate child to whom she gave birth as a young woman.
The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the Prince of Wales's Theatre.
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Adrian Philip Scarborough is an English actor.
Debra J. Gillett is an English actress who has appeared in productions including The Witches, Chimera, Truckers, Casualty, Just William, Dalziel and Pascoe, Spooks, Doctor Who, Soul Music, and Cranford.
George III has featured in many examples of popular culture.
Julian Neil Rohan Wadham is an English actor of stage, film and television.
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
Michael Rudman was an American theatre director.
Prince Regent is a British period television series made and transmitted by the BBC in 1979. It depicts the life of George IV from his youth time as prince regent and his reign as King. It consists of eight episodes of 50 minutes.
Jeffrey Richard Shankley is a British actor, singer and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company who has had a long career as a television and stage actor particularly in the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber for whom he originated several roles, including Munkustrap in the original London production of Cats at the New London Theatre in London in 1981 and Greaseball in Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 1984.