The King's Speech

Synopsis

Bertie, the Duke of York, was never meant to be King. Shy, fragile, afflicted with profound stuttering, his occasional public speeches were a torment to himself and worse to those forced to listen. When his older brother David, now Edward VIII, abdicates his throne in exchange for the bed of a twice divorced American with Nazi sympathies, Bertie s wife Elizabeth turns to a Harley Street speech therapist from Australia: Lionel Logue. What transpires in the privacy of Logue s consultation room is the heart of this drama. Can Bertie, the reluctant King, be ?cured to get through his Coronation, and even more daunting, speak via the BBC to anxious millions throughout the world, rallying the troops, a nation, and an Empire to defend democracy? At the crucial moment comes the disclosure that Logue is not what he seems. Carefully researched, this is the true story of a friendship that changed history.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 13 February 2012

David Seidler’s play about the stammering King George VI overcoming his handicap with the help of a self-styled Australian speech therapist was first seen on the Edinburgh festival fringe several years ago. The script did the rounds.

Commercial managements did not swamp the now 74 year-old playwright with offers. What happened next, of course, is one of the great show business stories of recent years: a huge movie hit, netting four Oscars and seven Baftas, over $400m taken worldwide, the most successful independent British film of all time.

So this classy touring production, adroitly directed by former RSC supremo Adrian Noble and smartly and glossily designed on a revolving stage by Anthony Ward, is the play of the play, not even the play of the film. Oddly, many of the scenes are cinematically envisioned, and the stage show doesn’t always have the fluency of Tom Hooper’s movie.

Nor, of course, does this version have Colin Firth as Bert...

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Latest User Review

lmd - 7 March 2012:

I've just seen this at Richmond, not being much of a film-goer. I thought it superb: excellent performances and stunning staging - and unexpectedly moving. Go see - highly recommended....

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