Hello, I'm Liv and I've come to Nottingham Playhouse this evening to see
the Madness of King George the third - come on with me!
The madness of George the third, written by Alan Bennett and starring Mark Gatiss,
charts the mental decline of the titular king and the inability of his court to
deal with his condition. It's a brilliant play, I I did I did George the third and
his ministers for A level and a bit like Alan in his introduction to the
play, because it's it's a notoriously dull period, but I remember being so thrilled
about the illness, I mean in those long summery history lesson afternoons, it was
like - I'll be going mad? But then, and I remember, I remember a lot of the ins and
outs of Fox and Pitt and those rival ministries and all that, but but it's the
human story isn't I think, it appeals and and I think there's, it's it's a very (if
you can say such a thing) it's a natural subject for Alan to have lighted on I
think because of his great interest in history but also in in the frailties of
human beings you know and also his attraction to royalty, you know I think
it's got a lot of his touchstones in it, has it and I think that sort of 'face
behind the royal mask', it's um he's always been very interested in, as have I,
I think and I I played Charles the first and I've played George and fourth, I'm
working my way around all the kings (and some of the Queen's possibly) but
principally it's because I think it's a it is a modern classic. I think it's a
terrific play I'm a huge fan of Alan and I wanted to work with you again
so it was there's a complete package. Georgia the thirds reign was fatally
disrupted by his own mental illness, his character and behaviour lampooned
publicly by cartoonists of the day, many of whom he paid off to cease ridiculing
him. There's a reason why we are always drawn to these stories, particularly
about warring factions and and and what I find very interesting is that that the
struggle for the crown has actually passed into politics, but it is
essentially exactly the same story and that's why we're drawn to political
dramas; that means that the royal family have assumed a different role now, I
think, which is is kind of soap opera and so we're drawn to the old soap operas
and also to the ongoing one and the reason the America
love the royal family so much is because they miss having one and the reason they
anoint families like the Kennedys as their own, there's a sort of need for
them I think within the public, both to build them up and knock them down
inevitably, so any any royal story which has all those things going for it is
immediately attractive, but I think it's there is a sort of very British
thing and a very Bennett-esque thing of the the sort of happy/ sadness of it, a
bitter sweetness of it which I'm always very drawn to, but the you know the
public face of the monarch, the the lovely happy marriage of George and
Charlotte and then the rivalries of the different political camps and the hatred
of the son and just as George the first hated his son and they there is these
fascinating threads to pull out I think, particularly actually I think with the
the Prince of Wales waiting all his life, you know that is not uncommon; Edward the
seventh had it with Victoria and Charles has it with Elizabeth and it's you can
see the same things resonating through history which i think is very
interesting. Well that was absolutely incredible, the play is a deep dive into
the mental illness of a monarch that became a constitutional crisis. Mark
Gatiss gives an amazingly powerful performance along with the rest of his
very very talented cast and the play finishes on a high note with him
returning triumphantly to power; however the historical reality was somewhat
different; the king relapsed back into his illness and his eldest son became
Prince Regent. I can highly recommend this play, it's on at Nottingham Playhouse
until the 24th of November or you can see it broadcast live as part of an NT
live on Tuesday the 20th of November.