THE KING’S SPEECH at the Watermill Theatre

★★★★

“Peter Sandys-Clarke gives an excellent performance as the ‘dear, dear man’ held in a vocal prison by his childhood trauma.”

Playwright David Seidler (1937–2024) developed a stammer at the age of three as his family travelled from the UK to the US in the early years of World War II. One of three ships in their convoy was destroyed by German U-Boats. Many kinds of speech therapy failed him until at the age of 16, and in a frustrated rage he shouted out the F-word.

Out of this traumatic experience came a playwright, and also his most memorable work, the screenplay for the film The King’s Speech, which is based on a true story. But Seidler’s wife said ‘why don’t you write it as a play?’, realising that the spatial limitations of theatre would enable it to focus on the key relationship at the heart of the piece. The 2010 film, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, was produced to great acclaim and won four Academy Awards. In 2012 the play opened in Guildford before touring the world in nine different languages.

The delightfully intimate Watermill Theatre is The Stage’s Theatre of the Year and has a reputation for unique shows which last long in the memory. This revival brilliantly embodies that tradition.

Directed by former Almeida resident director Emma Butler with insightful lighting by Ryan Day, and striking costume and set design by Bretta Gerecke, the play sheds new light on a much-loved and deeply poignant story.

The first act moves rapidly with a lot of plot to cover and many brief scenes, with a greater and more compelling focus after the interval.

If you have seen the film, you will recall that the relationship between the future King George VI (Peter Sandys-Clarke) and his wayward speech therapist Lionel Logue (Arthur Hughes) is the nub of the story. ‘Bertie’ the monarch-to-be is inventively dressed as ‘a thing of threads and patches’ – in a half-made suit that symbolises his status as a future king and as a stutterer ‘trapped in a broken body over which he has no control’. This symbolism is echoed in the set which consists largely of a disordered arc of swirling timber.

Peter Sandys-Clarke gives an excellent performance as the ‘dear, dear man’ held in a vocal prison by his childhood trauma. We see him fail to speak coherently at Wembley Stadium and the abuse to which he is subjected by his family. Against a backdrop of great affairs of state, including the death of a king and the abdication of another, an intimate and touching story of deepening friendship is played out between a plain-speaking Aussie and a very believably austere royal. Arthur Hughes shines as the genial and irreverent therapist, his performance somehow made all the more poignant by his own slight physical disability.

Aamira Challenger gives an elegantly restrained performance as the Princess Elizabeth and Jim Kitson makes the most of some excellent lines as a bluff and bustling Winston Churchill and King George V.

Rosa Hesmondhalgh (Myrtle Logue/Wallis Simpson) is endearing as an Australian shopgirl who gets invited to sit with the royals at a coronation. Christopher Naylor made the most of his role as the scheming Archbishop, Cosmo Lang and cricket sweater wearing Stephen Rahman-Hughes gives a new take on David, the Duke of Windsor who so memorably stood down from the throne as he could not uphold it without ‘the help and support of the woman I love’.

This wonderful revival is a delight.

THE KING’S SPEECH at the Watermill Theatre

Reviewed on 24th September 2024

by David Woodward

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

BARNUM | ★★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | April 2024

THE LORD OF THE RINGS | ★★★★★ | August 2023

MANSFIELD PARK | ★★★★ | June 2023

RAPUNZEL | ★★★★ | November 2022

WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND | ★★★★ | July 2022

THE KING’S SPEECH

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★★★★

“never a dull moment in this energetic and above all entertaining show”

Tom Wentworth’s version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing promises a ‘sashay into the Golden Age of Hollywood’ but does the filmset backdrop stick in this brand new adaptation?

After the loss of Arts Council funding, the Watermill has been named Theatre of the Year by the Stage and the National Theatre. This accolade reflects the reputation of the Watermill Ensemble for innovative shows which often feature highly talented casts of actor-musicians. This production is directed by Paul Hart, who co-leads the theatre. He has assembled a cast of 11 gleeful performers who fill the small stage with energetic sparkle. Musical direction is by Robin Colyer.

You may remember a 1993 film version starring what was then British theatre’s ultimate power couple, Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson. They were shoe-ins for the sparring roles of Beatrice and Benedick, who get some of Shakespeare’s funniest wordplay. In this show, Katherine Jack had tremendous presence as Beatrice (‘Oh! That I were a man!’), matched by James Mack’s buffoonish Benedick, who makes the most of the slapstick comedy that runs through the show. Jack Quarton is an impressive Don Pedro, as well as being central to the musical numbers throughout. The vibe is mambo, with plenty of up tempo percussion and some fabulous brass sounds.

As well as being an actor, Hayden Wood is an experienced director, musician and composer, last seen at the Watermill in ‘Notes from A Small Island’. As his engaging performance as Dogberry irrestibly suggests, he also tours globally as Basil in a Faulty Towers tribute show. Priscilla Grace brings tunes like ‘When I Fall in Love’ to splendid life, and Fred Double makes a fine Claudio to Thulis Magwaza’s blushing Hero. In last night’s show Leigh Quinn took the parts of Verges, Conrade and the Friar and Patrick Bridgman, who appeared in the final season of The Crown, was Leonato. In a successful gender-blind casting, Augustina Seymour is a wonderfully vampish Don John.

Although much of the play is as fizzy as champagne, there are some darker themes. There’s deceitfulness, a woman accused of dishonour, and a feigned death. These are somewhat lightly brushed over. The film set backdrop switches in whenever a recorded soundtrack starts up, in scenes which pastiche the hammy acting of 1940s Hollywood. There’s a symbolic camera on stage and some lighting kit too.

There’s never a dull moment in this energetic and above all entertaining show.

Tag Archives: Robin Colyer

THE KING’S SPEECH

★★★★

Watermill Theatre

THE KING’S SPEECH at the Watermill Theatre

★★★★

“Peter Sandys-Clarke gives an excellent performance as the ‘dear, dear man’ held in a vocal prison by his childhood trauma.”

THE KING’S SPEECH at the Watermill Theatre