Game of Thrones: The Mad King review – an action-packed saga of dry ice and fire
The Royal Shakespeare Company has staged Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a prequel to the hit HBO series, at its Stratford-upon-Avon theatre. Written by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, the production draws explicit inspiration from Shakespeare's history plays and tragedies, drawing parallels between King Aerys II Targaryen's descent into tyranny and figures such as Lear, while also carrying contemporary resonance around unstable world leaders and monarchical succession.
Set closer to the original TV series than existing HBO prequels House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the near-four-hour production revisits a tournament referenced in George RR Martin's novels and features young versions of familiar characters, including a young Eddard "Ned" Stark. The staging leans heavily on puppetry and movement direction from Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, with elaborate mechanical steeds and simulated dragons powering numerous jousts and battle scenes, alongside striking set design by Chloe Lamford.
- RSC stages new Game of Thrones prequel play, The Mad King, in Stratford-upon-Avon
- Play echoes Shakespeare's tragedies, with King Aerys resembling a mad Lear figure
- Elaborate puppetry brings jousts, dragons and battles to the stage
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Game of Thrones is HBO's fantasy drama, based on George RR Martin's novels, which ran from 2011 to 2019 and became one of television's biggest hits. Since then, the franchise has expanded into prequels exploring earlier chapters of its fictional history, including House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
The Mad King is a new stage adaptation by the Royal Shakespeare Company, one of Britain's most prominent theatre companies, based at Stratford-upon-Avon. It focuses on King Aerys II Targaryen, a tyrannical ruler referred to in the original series as "the Mad King," and is set in the years before the TV show begins, featuring younger versions of characters fans will recognise, such as Ned Stark.
The production matters partly because it marks an unusual crossover between a major theatre institution and a global television franchise, and partly because of how it is staged: it draws on Shakespearean tragedy for its themes of power and downfall, while using puppetry and elaborate stagecraft to recreate the series' battles and dragons for a live audience.