The Madness of King George III
Mad Jesty
The Madness of King George III
by Alan Bennett
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 24th October
Review by Denis Valentine
Putney Theatre delves into the summer of 1788 with its production of Alan Bennett’s The Madness of King George III. Using the large cast and great resources available, the company has managed to create a show that has a great blend of emotion, comedy and tragedy. This all the while weighted under satirical nature of Bennett’s work, the piece and its cast offer audiences an interestingly entertaining look and reflection on this time in British history.
As the titular character King George, Peter Singer is stretched to portraying a great range of different emotions and conditions and manages to handle them all with good guile and energy. His performance garners sympathy and, as the obvious linchpin of the play, his performance keeps everything on track and skilfully allows for the different storylines and branches to play off the events befalling the King.
A strong sequence is the chaotic uncertainty of the King’s first night of madness and is very well played by all, and particularly of course Singer, who shows good restraint, as well as craft in the Kings descent into ‘madness.’.
Joseph Vance, as William Pitt, has the strongest voice in the cast from a technical point of view and that allows for a convincing stout character demeanour. The ‘villains’ of the piece are having a lot of fun here and Tim Iredale, as the Prince of Wales, attacks his part with classic bad guy gusto. Mike Lahiffe brings a strong grounded presence as the scheming Charles James Fox and there is a great parliamentary scene with he and Vance’s Pitt, arguing back and forth.
The way directors Kim Dyas and Veronika Wilson stage scenes in parliament are very well done, with the echoing of the chambers well implemented from a chorus off to the side, whilst the main players in the scene debate back and forth.
The two main woman of the court, Louise Elliker as Queen Charlotte and Gemma Willis as Lady Pembroke have some wonderfully understated moments, especially in creating the sense that there is a whole story that each of their characters could be telling. In keeping with the time and history though, the whole stories are forever unexplored, as they are having to play second fiddle to support to the men and their issues.
The Doctors – Alex Murphy, Sharon Czudak, Carole Stewart, Sarah Kitchen – all work well in their sometimes duelling, sometimes cooperating, roles. These roles succeed in providing comedy, but also highlighting the harshness of the times and showing their own self-serving nature that presides in many characters throughout the play.
The rest of the cast all play their roles well and make the most of their time on stage to keep the world of the play moving.
The costumes (Simon Crump as Designer with Roanne Hathaway as Support) are all high quality, making the aesthetics of the show very impressive. The music accompanying certain scenes does help add to the spectacle of moments and it may have been nice if these had been sprinkled into the show a little bit more. There is a lot of effort that has gone into this production and what it may at times lack in terms of technical skill, it makes up for with passion and energy.
Denis Valentine, October 2026
