RSC Stages Game of Thrones Mad King Prequel
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Duncan Macmillan wrote the 3-hour-45-minute play with Dominic Cooke directing, drawing on an unexplored reference in Martin's books to a tournament in 281AC (after conquest) as a close prologue to HBO's eight-season series (2011–2019).
- Michael Shaeffer stars as King Aerys II Targaryen, styled with long white beard and flower-braided hair that the reviewer notes strongly resembles Laurence Olivier's television Lear.
- Puppetry directors Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell deploy vast skeletal horse frames manipulated by squads of actors, alongside simulated dogs and dragons, though the reviewer judges the spectacle cannot match television's "dollars-to-burn" atmospherics.
- Chloe Lamford's set features a sacred tree formed by a rising trunk meeting descending foliage, with real flames and dry ice swirling on a cruciform walkway that quarters the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stalls.
- Cast members Maxim Ays, Michael Abubakar, Daisy Franks, and Hughie O'Donnell play younger versions of Jaime Lannister, Ned Stark, Cersei Lannister, and Lord Varys, while Elizabeth Ayodele and Noah Ritter as Princess Elia Martell and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen make the strongest impact.
- RSC economic rationale: rising wartime costs and Covid-era debts compounded by repaying government loans drove the institution toward a major commercial franchise, with its musical Matilda's longevity uncertain.
- The reviewer lands on a split verdict — "five-star production for most devoted throners but a three-star for those who haven't seen the TV series" — and notes the play's ending leaves a 14-year gap to the HBO timeline, potentially enabling further installments.
Why it matters: The RSC — England's flagship classical theater company and patron King Charles III's institution — is using a blockbuster American fantasy franchise to offset post-Covid and wartime cost pressures, betting that "Game of Thrones" brand equity will fill seats that its house dramatist's royal histories alone may not. For fans, it offers an unprecedented chance to see pre-HBO backstories for characters like Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell rendered on stage.
Ask SkimNews
