The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the cast of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a new stage play opening next week in Stratford-upon-Avon. The production explores a previously unshown period of the franchise’s history and offers new portrayals of characters familiar from the television series.

Set about a decade before A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, the play centres on a dinner banquet during the final years of King Aerys II Targaryen’s rule. Michael Shaeffer plays Aerys, with Noah Ritter as Rhaegar Targaryen, Harmony Rose-Brenner as Lyanna Stark and Callum Woodhouse as Robert Baratheon; it runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 8 August to 5 September.