About the Play:

The Madness of George III was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

The Madness of George III is a full-length drama by Alan Bennett. Enduring the struggle of power between politicians and his scheming son, as well as the cruel and barbaric medical treatments of the time, King George remains witty, moving, and ultimately triumphant.

The Madness of George III tells the story of the third Hanoverian king of Great Britain, who despite his string of accomplishments – he founded the Royal Academy of Arts, was a passionate advocate of science, literature and music and fathered 15 children – is best remembered for his bouts of uncontrollable insanity. In this sensational drama from the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain George III becomes increasingly erratic after losing the American colonies, but now he is deranged, with rumours circulating that he has even addressed an oak tree as the King of Prussia. Doctors are brought in to cure his madness. All of them are eminently respectable quacks and one is in the employ of the Prince to Wales, a man with a strong motive for easing the King further into madness. When the King recovers with the aid of a country doctor, a constitutional crisis is averted. Alan Bennett's play is about the nature of kingship itself, showing how by subtle degrees the ruler's delirium erodes his authority and status.

The Madness of George III premiered in 1991 at the National Theatre in London and went on to become an international theatrical sensation and an award-winning film.

Cast: 3 women, 23 men

What people say:

"Absolutely engrossing." — New York Post

"A richly amusing evening of high office politics with plenty of contemporary resonances." — Daily Express

"What Mr. Bennett achieves with a consummate sense of theatre is in making this remote, ambiguous monarch character totally accessible to a modern audience, at once a fascinating figure of both tragedy and heroism." — The Daily Mail

About the Playwright:

Alan Bennett is now regarded as perhaps the premier English dramatist of his generation. Over the last thirty years, Bennett has written ten stage plays, three screenplays, eight television documentaries, and over thirty plays for television. His work focuses on the everyday and the mundane; on people with typically British characteristics and obsessions. He has won multiple awards for all aspects of his work including his writing and acting and has declined both a CBE and a knighthood.