The Mad King, the previously announced Game of Thrones stage prequel heading to Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre, will begin performances there on July 20, with an official opening on August 8.
The engagement runs through September 5. Royal Shakespeare Company announced the dates on its website.
Deadline previously reported that the production was set to begin this summer. Casting has yet to be announced.
“We are thrilled to share the full creative team and announce performance dates for Game of Thrones: The Mad King,” say RSC RCo-Artistic Directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey in a joint statement. “This production brings together some of theatre’s most visionary talents to reimagine George R. R. Martin’s world for the stage. In a bold new configuration of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, audiences will find themselves at the very heart of the action—immersed in the intrigue and theatrical spectacle that promises to make this production truly epic. It’s an ambitious and exhilarating collaboration, and we can’t wait to welcome audiences into this extraordinary experience.”
Among the newly announced creative team members are puppetry and movement designers Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell (of Lume), set designer Chloe Lamford, costume designer Georgia McGuinness, lighting designer Jon Clark, composer Will Stuart and sound designer Tom Gibbons.
Duncan Macmillan (Every Brilliant Thing) has written the play, and Dominic Cooke is directing.
Here’s the synopsis: “A long winter thaws in Harrenhal, and spring is promised. At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revelers speculate about who will contend. But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the bloodthirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound. Family bonds, ancient prophecies, and the sacred line of succession will be tested in a dangerous campaign for power. Who will survive? Who will rise?”
The play is inspired by the “Robert’s Rebellion” lore of Martin’s sprawling book series, in which the married Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, son of the Mad King Aerys, falls in love with, and runs off with, Lyanna Stark. This leads to a rebellion led by Robert Baratheon, who is engaged to Lyanna. Successfully deposing the Mad King, The Rebellion leads to the downfall of House Targaryen.
Game of Thrones characters Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister are expected to appear in The Mad King.
In February, director Cooke told Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye, “I don’t think it’s a secret that there’s a lot of fighting going on, but we’re sort of trying to find a theatrical way of doing things,” adding that the Rhaegar-Lyanna romance is “a bit of a Romeo and Juliet-type story.”
