As the Stranger Things play has shown, audiences will eagerly go to the theater to get a new perspective on the stories they’ve seen on TV—or in the case of Game of Thrones: The Mad King, seen on TV and read about in George R.R. Martin’s books. As Westeros makes its presence felt on HBO thanks to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and the soon-to-arrive third season of House of the Dragon, fans can now plan a pilgrimage to the Royal Shakespeare Company to get a deeper look at the events that directly sparked the conflicts seen in Game of Thrones.
The Mad King opens in Stratford-upon-Avon this summer, Deadline reveals, and will be directed by Dominic Cooke, who’s been collaborating with playwright Duncan Macmillan for some time. Martin is also involved, of course; according to Deadline, he’s been attending workshop performances over the years and is a longtime Royal Shakespeare Company aficionado.
The trade notes that “the production will have a star-crossed-lovers vibe set against the backdrop of a jousting tournament on Harrenhal, set over a decade and a half before the events” of Game of Thrones. While the mention of a jousting tournament immediately evokes A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the story’s proximity to Game of Thrones means it’s directly linked to characters fans know from the show, unlike the other prequels, which are set in the more distant past.
That includes a young Ned Stark—as well as Ned Stark’s tragic sister Lyanna, who becomes torn between Rhaegar Targaryen (the Mad King’s son and Daenerys’ older brother) and Robert Baratheon, her promised husband. The play also features young versions of Jaime Lannister and Varys, among others.
Speaking to Deadline, Cooke and Macmillan explained Lyanna is a central character to the story. She’s a teenager from a highborn family, but she’s also really good at swinging a sword. “She doesn’t really fit the mold of how the women at that time were supposed to behave. But she’s also very intuitive and very smart, and she’s a live wire,” Cooke said. “She’s got a rebellious streak to her.”
Macmillan said that Lyanna is a “catalyst” for what happens in the years that follow, despite dying at a young age: “Without Lyanna Stark, there is no Game of Thrones.”
With that in mind, casting—which is already underway—is the duo’s next big challenge. It will be a young cast, aside from Aerys II, the Mad King. “If you think about Ned, he was played by Sean Bean in the TV show, and we are playing him in his 20s,” Cooke said. “So it’s just interesting to see them as young people. Part of the essence of this show is a story of growing up, rites of passage, people becoming who they are.”
Fans have already seen a young version of Ned—he popped up in a season six Game of Thrones flashback to Robert’s Rebellion, the uprising that ended the very long Targaryen reign over Westeros. There, he was played by future Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Robert Aramayo.
It sounds like The Mad King will dial back the events even further, revealing more about what happened at the legendary Harrenhal tourney that brought Ned to that fateful tower in Dorne. If you’ve read A Song of Ice and Fire, you know the broad strokes of the story, but Macmillan teases he worked with Martin to flesh out “events which George has never previously revealed, things that have been the source of intense speculation.”
Tickets go on sale in April for Game of Thrones: The Mad King; you can learn more at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s website.
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