‘Summer is coming!’: The Royal Shakespeare Company presents an epic screening of Game of Thrones | stage

A new prequel to George R.R. Martin’s blockbuster fantasy epic Game of Thrones is set to be premiered this summer by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The best-selling author, whose novels have been turned into a huge TV series, said Shakespeare’s play was the “obvious choice” to stage Game of Thrones: The Mad King because Shakespeare had always been a source of inspiration for him. “Not only that, but he faced similar challenges in how to put the fight on stage,” Martin added. “So we’re in good company.”

The play has been a long time coming: adapter Duncan Macmillan and director Dominic Cooke were first announced in 2021 as collaborating on a Game of Thrones project in an unspecified location. The duo said in a statement today: “George’s novel is Shakespearean in its scope and themes: dynastic strife, ambition, rebellion, madness, prophecy and ill-fated love. From the beginning, Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies have been our primary reference for the ambition of this production, so the RSC feels like a natural home.”

“The epic cycle of warring families in the new play lies on a continuum with the cycles of Shakespeare’s history,” said Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans, associate artistic directors at the RSC since 2023. They added that the play will explore “the true nature of power through the lens of young people grappling with inherited identities.”

Martin, who will serve as executive producer, has already visited the company’s headquarters in Stratford and is said to have thoroughly enjoyed his trip to the weapons division. “I never imagined it would be anything other than a book,” he said of “Game of Thrones,” which was published in 1996 and began a series called “A Song of Ice and Fire.” “It was a place where my imagination could exist without limits,” he continued. “To my great surprise, it was modified to fit A [TV] The series, and viewers were able to enter the world of my imagination through television. Now adapting my work to theater is something I did not expect but welcome with great enthusiasm and excitement.

Game of Thrones was produced by HBO for eight seasons from 2011 to 2019, and has already inspired two major TV series: House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The play is set more than a decade before the events of Game of Thrones and will feature familiar characters from Houses Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Baratheon and Martell. A promotional synopsis states: “The long winter melts at Harrenhal, and spring is promised. At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revelers speculate on who will compete. But in the shadows, amid growing anxiety over the bloodthirsty deeds of the ruthless Mad King upon the world, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle are sounding.”

Many actors who starred in TV series appeared with the RSC earlier in their careers, including Julian Glover, Diana Rigg, Sean Bean, Charles Dance and Iain Glen. Cast and dates for the new play have not yet been announced. Tickets will be available from April. It is scheduled to be shown in the RSC’s main hall, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which seats just over 1,000 theatre-goers.

Some say theaters are offering too many novel and TV adaptations, but the RSC is hoping to attract new audiences with such a franchise, just as it did with its triumphant version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, which opens at the Barbican in 2022 and runs in the West End for a year. The company has recently been seeking to reduce its workforce and consider making other savings to address the financial shortfall.

“It will be exciting for us to share this new play with audiences, both those who know and love George’s books and the HBO series but also audiences who know nothing and want to come and experience something intimate, beautiful and truly epic,” said McMillan, whose plays include “Lungs” and “Cook,” and who is about to take over as the Almeida Theatre’s new artistic director.