The Madness Of George Iii, Theatre Royal Bath
Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of George III gives a fascinating insight into the life of the King and the political unrest, greed and intrigue during his reign exacerbated by his incapacitation. Every schoolboy can tell you that George III was mad but his other worthy accomplishments in the fields of art, science and even agricultural have sadly not been remembered as his epitaph.
The play opens in the King’s middle years (he was unaffected until then) when he was both a loving husband and father to fifteen children although his dislike of his eldest The Prince of Wales is obvious, due to his rackety dissolute lifestyle and his corpulence at complete odds with this father’s strict moral codes. Christopher Keegan is excellent as the slightly effeminate Prince of Wales, bewigged and petulant waiting in the wings of the monarchy to overturn all it stood for.
If you thought there was no amusement to be had in an historical play, dealing with illness, madness and weighty political matters, you would be wrong. Cleverly written and beautifully executed by the cast, a rich vein of humour runs alongside the tragedy. Of the four physicians called to attend to the King three believe in their own brutal remedies, blistering to let the evil humours out, purgatives, bleeding, and one persistently peering into the King’s chamber pot obsessed with his stools. Luckily the fourth coming with a recommendation of curing a distant relation’s madness steps in and begins a somewhat modern regime of verbal therapy combined with restraint. The doctors played by Peter Pacey, Madhav Sharma, John Webb and Clive Francis are hilarious as they dish out the quackery that passed for medicine of the day caring more for their fee than the patient.
The biggest task of all goes to David Haig as King George; portrayed at his highest and lowest firstly as an all powerful monarch and tender family man, then descending into lunacy before finally recovering his senses. Quite simply David Haig was magnificent, he makes us laugh with the King and cry for his awful predicament, and I can’t think of anyone who could have played the part better.
Janet Bird’s simple set blends well with the full costumes which bring richness and colour and it is a fine production in all respects. This was the best piece of theatre I’ve seen for sometime and come curtain down the packed audience agreed : the excellent cast, headed by David Haig received a well-deserved standing ovation.
Jacquie Vowles
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