The Madness of King George III was written in 1991 by Alan Bennett. I saw this play at the end of November 2018 at the Nottingham playhouse after seeing a trailer for the live screening of the film before a screening of another Alan Bennett play “Allelujah!” at the Playhouse cinema in Louth. The play starred Adrian Scarborough as Dr. Willis and Mark Gatiss as the titular role of George III.
By far the greatest decision that director Adam Penford has made in his first year leading the Nottingham playhouse was to revive this play. The Madness of king George III tells the tale of the first bout of madness suffered by King George in the 1780s, the attempts to cure him by his doctors and the political turmoil that the prince of wales is reaping in the Kings absence. This play has not become less relevant today even though it was first preformed almost 28 years ago. Nearly the most important man in the western world is basically insane after all. Whilst this theme and that of the parliament being in turmoil are not exploited to their fullest extent means that whilst the play is still important it is not as relevant as it could be.
The second greatest decision of Adam Penford’s ongoing tenure is the casting of Mark Gatiss. As the king Gatiss gives an awesome performance, dominating every scene he’s in. Most of the cast are thoroughly impressive but the only other truly great performance comes from Adrian Scarborough who plays the man tasked with curing the king. Scarborough and Gatiss are in numerous scenes together and they work together incredibly well with the two characters fighting for dominance of the room. Throughout the play Gatiss takes advantage of his height. Standing at 6 foot 1 inch he towers over the rest of the cast and with his erratic movement coupled with his high paced line delivery Gatiss is able to show complete control over the rest of the characters and emphasize the importance of the king in this society. It is even more impressive, then, that Scarborough is able to realistically show control over Gatiss. Scarborough is merely 5 foot 4 inches and so is visibly shorter than Gatiss leading to some electric scenes between the two of them as their struggle for power plays out. The descent into madness is played excellently by Gatiss who conveys the anguish felt by George as he feels his mind slipping away perfectly. The relationship between George and Willis is show to be one of tough love as Willis is ready to do anything for (and to) the king in attempt to cure him. This develops as the play goes on and the two soon become begrudging allies with a mutual respect for one another, again portrayed greatly by the two leads. The only moments where the performance felt a tiny bit lacking was where the old doctors of the king talked about the impact of Willis arriving on their own lives. It could have been a lo more dramatic and real if the two actresses had spent a little bit more time delivering the scene as it was clear;y somewhat rushed.
The comedy of this play is one of the greatest elements at work. Bennett has been known for his plays being funny but The Madness of King George III stands above the rest with perfect timing and delivery. The funniest joke comes in the form of a catchphrase, of sorts, of King Georges. At the start of the play the king ends a good chunk of his lines with the expression “what, what?” the delivery from Gatiss allows for it to be used in a number of different manners and emphasize the current feeling form the king. A number of characters spend a small amount of time complaining about it but soon into the plays first half the king begins to slip into madness and the “what what-ing” is forgotten about. When George starts to make a recovery, after a superbly funny scene where Willis lets George read through King Lear (he “didn’t know what it was about”), George he begins to speak sense again and concludes a sentence talking about how he should spend more time in treatment with “what, what.” The staggered notice of the cast and the few seconds where they notice make for very funny few moments and a welcome bout of humor that had been missing since the king slipped. Another notable comedic area of the play comes in the form Of the prince of wales. The prince is scheming to replace his father and turn parliament upside down but is always doing so in an amusing manner. The performance of the prince is clearly inspired by Blackadder and although it can get a little old at times it was nice to be able to us his jokes as a reason to hate him even more.
Robert Jones designed the set for this piece and used two large rotating blocks at the back of the stage to show location. The sharp 90° angles of the set allow for us to see the play as set in a sharp and harsh environment and the changing costumes Gatiss wears throughout the play help to show the stages of his sanity. he goes from wearing luxurious lavish outfits to being dressed in rags and the clear absence of his former worn wig marks the true point that he goes crazy, as they believed in the 1780s. Richard Howell allows for natural lighting for most of the play and so when he uses a spotlight at the end of the first half of the play is a real shock to the watching audience and adds on to the shock of what is being depicted on screen. What, I hear you ask, what is being depicted on screen, what what? The scene in the closing moments of the first half sees a cluster of Willis’, recently arrived on stage, surround the king and usher him into a chair. Scarborough is giving his best performance that he can as he shouts to the other doctors of his plans and we realize that he is not who he presented himself to be, a nice and calming doctor, but rather he is a man who is ready to do anything. The music is playing at its loudest and the characters are shouting their lines when the servants pull back as one to show the king restrained to a chair, illuminated by the fore mentioned spotlight. “I am the king of England!” Gatiss cries in despair. “No, Sir!” replies Scarborough, “You are my Patient!” The curtains close and the audience is in shock. The way that George’s madness is portrayed is not better in any scene but this and the cruel and harsh Dr. Willis revel to be who he is is heart stopping. this is the single best scene in the entire play and is therefore, unsurprisingly, the scene they chose for the trailer that I had seen not a week earlier. But up close the scene has so much more impact. the two actors are at the top of their game and with the lighting and music all being perfect for this scene meant that I was literally frozen to my chair for half the interval. I missed the opportunity to get totally over-priced ice cream.
Gatiss’ performance is a tour-de-force in an epic play that i would have been the lesser for not seeing. The casting was perfect as was the sound and whilst for the majority of the first act I was thinking that Richard Howell had phoned it in when it came to lighting i realized that it was a genius move when one scene rolled around. This play is honestly my favorite piece of live theatre I have ever seen performed and is the only play I ever seriously considered seeing again. I left the playhouse still thinking about the scene just before the interval and I can say with 78% certainty that anyone other than Gatiss would not have been able to do half the job that Gatiss did. Basically it was awesome.
Taking inspiration from the staging of this play I have re-shot a couple of scenes for my film to create a more minimalist feel to it. This should improve my editing and directing skills with the play influencing my future projects as I will look back at this and compare the lay out to this play and try to include the same sort of aesthetic feel to it.
Jonah Waters Arts Award 