Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a new stage production from the Royal Shakespeare Company, is now playing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, running until September 5, 2026. Adapted by Duncan MacMillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, the roughly three-hour-and-40-minute play is set before the events of George R.R. Martin's novels and the original Game of Thrones TV show, chronicling the tourney at Harrenhal and the subsequent civil war known as Robert's Rebellion. The story follows Rhaegar Targaryen crowning Lyanna Stark queen of love and beauty at the tourney, an event that helps spark the rebellion that ends with Robert Baratheon taking the Iron Throne and the near-destruction of House Targaryen.
Reviewers from GamesRadar+ and Polygon both praised the production's staging and scale, describing a cross-shaped stage with the audience seated close to the action, massive horse puppets operated by multiple puppeteers, a godswood set piece with a carved weirwood face, and a large dragon puppet whose size dominates the stage. Costumes range from gowns to painted armor bearing house sigils. Both outlets highlighted standout performances, including Michael Shaeffer as the Mad King Aerys, Harmony Rose Bremner as Lyanna Stark, Noah Ritter as Rhaegar Targaryen, Elizabeth Ayodele as Elia Martell, Michael Abubakar as Eddard 'Ned' Stark, and Maxim Ays as Jaime Lannister. Polygon singled out Elia Martell's portrayal as especially compelling, describing her as politically savvy rather than simply a heartbroken figure, while GamesRadar+ called Shaeffer's take on Aerys the standout of the show, describing him as humanized, cruel, and haunted by trauma.
Both reviews noted the play's shift in tone between its two acts. The first act, centered on the tourney itself, was described as intimate and character-driven, exploring relationships such as the romance between Rhaegar and Lyanna and the political tensions surrounding Aerys. The second act broadens into the war itself, with characters separated by geography and communicating via raven; GamesRadar+ felt this section lost some of the closeness of Act 1, though it praised the staging of the Battle of the Trident and other emotional moments, including a scene of women singing a hymn amid the war.
According to GamesRadar+'s detailed breakdown of the play's revelations, The Mad King answers numerous long-standing fan questions from Martin's book series, including confirming that Lyanna Stark was the mystery knight known as the Knight of the Laughing Tree, that Rhaegar's tourney was a cover for a plot against his father, and that Elia Martell had a lover, Ashara Dayne, in a political marriage with Rhaegar. The play also depicts Rhaegar and Aerys's shared trauma from the fire at Summerhall, shows Jon Snow being named after Jon Arryn rather than Aegon Targaryen and remaining unmarried-in-secret unlike in the TV show, and connects Rhaegar's vision of Daenerys (drawn from a scene in A Clash of Kings) to the wider prophecy of 'the Prince that was Promised.' The play also shows Rhaella Targaryen declaring, while pregnant with Daenerys, that she might instead be birthing 'the scourge of the world' who would burn the realm, a line GamesRadar+ suggests lends support to the idea that Daenerys's book arc may still head toward the TV series' controversial destruction of King's Landing.
Polygon's review argued that The Mad King represents a meaningful follow-up to the original Game of Thrones TV series, which the outlet said suffered a fall in reputation after its widely criticized ending. The reviewer wrote that the play works best when judged on its own terms rather than as a direct extension of the HBO show, noting that attempts within the play to reconcile Daenerys's eventual descent into villainy in the TV series felt like the least successful moments. Both GamesRadar+ and Polygon concluded that the production is a major achievement, though GamesRadar+ noted its biggest drawback is its limited location in Stratford-Upon-Avon, expressing hope for a future West End or Broadway run or a recorded version for wider audiences.