Theatre News

David Haig Is Bennett’s George III at Apollo, 23 Jan

| London's West End |

30 September 2011

As previously tipped, fresh from his Theatre Awards UK nomination for Best Performance in a Play (the newly rebranded TMA Awards) David Haig will star as King George III in Christopher Luscombe‘s critically acclaimed Theatre Royal Bath production of The Madness of George III which transfers to the West End’s Apollo Theatre from 23 January 2012 (previews from 18 January).

The production will play a limited season until 31 March 2012, falling between the West End return of Jerusalem which ends on 14 January 2012 and Eugene O’Neill‘s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night starring David Suchet which plays its first preview on 3 April.

Currently at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, Alan Bennett‘s 1991 play tours to Nottingham, Cambridge, Canterbury, Milton Keynes and Truro before arriving in Chichester on 14 November 2011.

The Madness of George III premiered on 28 November 1991 at the National Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Nigel Hawthorne in the title role. One of Bennett’s biggest hits, the play is a fictionalised account of the latter half of Gorge’s reign, best-remembered today for his bouts of “unbridled lunacy”. The show was adapted into a film in 1994.

David Haig was last seen in the West End in Yes, Prime Minister which continues its London run at the Gielgud Theatre until 19 November. Amongst his stage credits is an Olivier Award-winning appearance in Our Country’s Good. His screen credits include The Thick of It, Mo, My Boy Jack, The Thin Blue Line and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He also performed Bennett’s Talking Heads monologue on television, the only person apart from the writer to do so.

The West End cast has also been confirmed as Clive Francis, Beatie Edney and Madhav Sharma.

The current touring cast also includes William Belchambers, Ed Cooper Clarke, Orlando James, Christopher Keegan, Beruce Khan, Gary Mackay, Simon Markey, Chris McCalphy, Peter McGovern, Patrick Moy, Gary Oliver, Peter Pacey, Nicholas Rowe, Ryan Saunders, John Webb, Karren Winchester and Thomas Wheatley.

The Madness of George III was originally mounted as part of the 2011 Peter Hall Season at the Theatre Royal Bath where it ran from 24 August (previews from 17 August) to 3 September 2011.