[category]
[title]
A Game of Thrones play has been in the works for ages now – it was first announced in 2021, and was then due to debut on the West End in 2023 under the name The Iron Throne.
While the core creatives of playwright Duncan Macmillan and director Dominic Cooke haven’t changed, a lot else has, and long story short the fully George RR Martin-endorsed and compliant play is now called Game of Thrones: The Mad King, it’s coming this summer with dates TBC, and will be produced by the RSC, who will stage it not in London but in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The exact reasons it took so long are unclear: the show will have taken considerably longer to get from announcement to completion than either Game of Thrones spin-off TV series. That said, it’s not a patch on the delay for Martin’s infamous sixth A Song of Ice and Fire novel The Winds of Winter, and you have to imagine that a fair amount of development might have been required to make medieval-style combat that looks good on stage. And it certainly sounds like that will be required as the show is set at a jousting tournament. Or rather, to hardcore ASOIAF fans, it chronicles the fateful Tourney at Harrenhal that led to Robert's Rebellion, a pivotal event that set up the main story of the books and TV series. It’s also flashed back to in A Game of Thrones (the novel) and we know quite a lot of details about it, and that it featured various younger versions of beloved series characters such as Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister.
GoT has always had a degree of similarity to Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses history plays, and given The Mad King doesn’t appear to call for any dragons, white walkers etc then it would seem to be a pretty damn good fit for the RSC, which also gives the project a note of prestige in an era where there are clearly quite a lot of GoT spin-offs knocking about.
Quoth Martin (pictured up top in what appears to be the show’s armoury): ‘For me, the RSC was the obvious choice when thinking about putting a Game of Thrones story on the stage. Shakespeare is the greatest name in English literature, and his plays have been a constant source of inspiration to me and my writing.
‘Not only that, he faced similar challenges in how to put a battle on stage, so we are in good company. It will be thrilling to watch the events of this new play unfold in a live environment. Duncan’s masterful script honours the world completely, and I am so excited for both fans of the series, and perhaps people who have never picked up one of my books, to experience this new story in a theatre.’
Casting is TBA and while it’s clearly not debuting on the West End. You have to imagine that it’ll make its way to London (and beyond) if the word is good, but Stratford is, of course, just a train away.
Game of Thrones: The Mad King will run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon this summer. Exact dates are TBC but it will go on sale in April.
The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2026.
Review: Dracula starring Cynthia Erivo at the Noël Coward Theatre.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.