The Madness of George III is much easier to like than King Lear

The longest interval in theatre history continues. Last week the National Theatre livestreamed a 2018 version of The Madness of George III produced by Nottingham Playhouse with Mark Gatiss in the title role. The script, written by Alan Bennett as a response to King Lear, is much easier to like than the original.

An engaging family comedy, with a sad bit in the middle, it benefits from a wonderfully happy ending. The good king is cured, the bad doctors are vanquished, order is restored. A real crowd-pleaser. Bennett’s research gives it the feeling of a documentary drama as he examines the difficulties faced by monarchs who wielded real political power. Family feuds spilled over into public affairs, and if the king happened to run an empire the consequences could be global.

The portrait of George is multifaceted, contradictory, instantly human. He adores his chubby German wife,‘You are a good little woman, Mrs King,’ but he can’t abide his profligate son, the future George IV. ‘Want to hump the old bird out of its nest, is that it, you great cuckoo?’ In keeping with the time, George keeps a mistress or two but even here he behaves with endearing gallantry. Suggesting a tryst with Lady Pembroke, he says: ‘Did we ever forget ourselves utterly? Because if we did forget ourselves I would so like to remember.’

As his madness approaches, he falls into the hands of quacks, who seem a lot nuttier than their patient. ‘I have always found the stool more eloquent than the pulse,’ says a doctor with a dung fixation. Another, who today would face criminal charges, enjoys scalding the king’s shaven head with preheated suction cups.