SIXTEEN years ago, with then-heartthrob Colin Firth doing his royal bit, and “newcomer” Geoffrey Rush exciting the critics, Tom Hooper’s film of David Seidler’s script The King’s Speech won 12 Oscar nominations and huge international acclaim.
Two years later Seidler’s original script was staged at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, and at Wyndhams in London. In 2015 it was at Birmingham Rep.
Now the enterprising Barn Theatre at Cirencester has re-staged the play, which goes on a national tour from mid January to the end of June 2027. Until 7th November, audiences in the south west have the chance to see it in advance of the tour, and I would strongly advise them to do just that.
Seidler, who died in 2024, had a unique take on the story of Prince Albert, a man brought up to know his elder brother David would be king, but who had the Crown forced on him by his brother’s abdication. Bertie, as he was mockingly “affectionately” know by his close family, had an apparently insurmountable stammer, which left him at the mercy of detractors, politicians, churchmen and those opposed to the idea of a Royal Family.
When he could no longer ignore the reality of his new situation, the prince took his wife’s advice and consulted a speech therapist, Lionel Logue, an Australian wannabe actor who couldn’t persuade English casting directors of his talent. Logue had no truck with the formality and deference with which his new student was surrounded. He set the rules.
Seidler was the two-year-old son of a prosperous Jewish family, and was taken in a three-ship convoy from his London home to the USA to wait out the Second World War. Soon he developed a stammer, and when it continued, his parents held out the progress of the new English king as a model for him to follow.
The intensely painful, infuriating and frustrating situation in which Bertie found himself is poignantly captured in this brilliant new production, directed by Loveday Ingram. Perhaps the cruelty, arrogance and patronising of the court, state and church is more evident in these post-The Crown days, but the play calls for actors who can walk a very precarious line between entitled, mannered arrogance and the loneliness and pathos of a ridiculed second child – and George Rainsford does it perfectly. The final scene – the “happy ending”– is a real tear-jerker.
Of course the play depends upon the balance between Logue and the man who will be king. Stefan Dennis is best known (still) as Paul Robinson in Neighbours. There was a deal of Ramsey Street-inspired whooping, and eager fans at the Stage Door. During the annual Aussie summer break in filming in the very early days of the Australian soap opera (which went on for 40 years!), Stefan came to the UK and starred in pantomime. I went to see him at Bournemouth Pavilion in 1992, fearing “another TV big name” roped in to put bums on seats and totally oblivious to the traditions of panto. Stefan was Buttons, and he was terrific, physically up to all those beloved routines, fast and willing to engage with whatever the audience shouted, capturing the delicate pathos that a great Buttons needs.
He has just got better and better, and his Logue is a triumph.
The King’s Speech comes to Bath Theatre Royal from 22nd February, and to Salisbury Playhouse from 3rd May, as part of a 23-venue tour.
Photographs by Alex Tabrizi.