The Fall of the King

David Haig, known to many as the ‘funny one with the moustache in Four Wedddings and a Funeral’ demonstrates another dimension to his considerable talents in The Madness of George III at Richmond Theatre.

The fall of the Divinely appointed King – from bewigged and enthroned Head of State to a shaven gibbering lunatic twitching in a restraining chair – is eloquently depicted in Alan Bennett’s text. But to make visual and visceral the torments of the King as he falls, every cry of mental anguish and scream of physical pain moving us to tears without tending to mawkishness, demonstrate to me the extraordinary powers of Haig.

I admired him in My Boy Jack, his play about Kipling, and in Bennett’s Talking Heads in which he played a paedophile, but in The Madness of George III I was left – like the audience – giving a standing ovation to the talent and energy of the man who depicted the fall of the King so brilliantly.

The rest of the characters are excellently played too, particularly the Queen (Beatie Edney), William Pitt (Niolas Rowe) and Dr Francis Willis, (the redoubtable Clive Francis). Christopher Keegan’s Prince of Wales was hilarious and poignant; his valets fit his Royal Highnesses new waistcoat in a sickening counterpoint to the King’s tormentors who are enfolding him in a jacket of a different kind.

The play is only on at Richmond Theatre until Saturday 10 September so hurry and book tickets now. 0844 871 7651 www.atgtickts.com/Richmond-Theatre. You can also read my interview with David here.

Sarah Hodgson is a regular at local theatres, and Editor-in-Chief at Time & Leisure Media Group.