Word: bennett
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...portrayal of George III that one expects a showy, scenery chewing performance--and, indeed, much of the role could lend itself to that. But Hawthorne is impressive precisely because he eschews that well-trod path toward theatrical legend in favor of a performance that actually convinces you that Bennett's conception of George III is plausible...
That they can, and that a play which often seems like a cross between King Lear and a Monty Python episode can somehow enmesh its audience emotionally is a tribute to the exceptional work of the Royal National Theatre's repertory company. The cast is exceptional and Bennett's play makes the most...
This is not always easy to do. In his moments of lucidity, Bennett's king embodies the "Farmer George" image. Plainspoken, fair and with a sense of humor (he calls the Queen "Mrs. King"), George III is nonetheless indisputably in charge. "I am the verb, sir, not the object," he tells a subject. But following the descent into madness, Hawthorne must spew the random gibberings of a man who has lost all control...
...when it slowly dawns on the main doctor treating him that George is recovering faster than he has been letting on. It is a tribute to Hawthorne's acting ability that the audience guesses this just far enough ahead of the doctor to marvel at the subtlety of Bennett's language. This revelation that there are levels to his madness makes one of George's remarks all the more affecting. When someone comments that the King seems more like himself, George replies...
...cure the King. Clive Merrison does a good job of portraying Willis' frustration with and isolation from his aristocratic surroundings. (As the king is recovering, an appalled equerry asks Willis why he has George reading "King Lear" Willis replies tersely, "I didn't know what it was about") But Bennett has no intention of making Willis any more sympathetic than his aristocratic counterparts and Merrison aptly conveys Willis' despotic side...