Walking into one of the world's most iconic theaters to meet characters you've known for years but never seen up close is a strange experience. Rhaegar Targaryen, Lyanna Stark, Elia Martell, and the Mad King Aerys II have haunted A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones as distant figures, their choices shaping decades of bloodshed. George R.R. Martin's The Mad King gives these ghosts flesh, fire, and blood, turning a pivotal chapter of Westerosi history into an ambitious four-hour theatrical epic that doesn't always justify its Balerion-sized runtime—but when it clicks, it's pure magic.
Not Your HBO Westeros
Director Dominic Cooke and adapter Duncan Macmillan make a bold choice: they refuse to treat The Mad King as a mere prequel to HBO's series. The stage is recognizably Westeros, but the visual language is distinct. Banners and sigils have been redesigned—the Targaryen dragon is longer and more serpentine than the wyvern-like creature from TV, signaling this is its own piece of lore, not a shadow of the show.
This distinction matters because it helps fans adjust to seeing new faces in familiar roles. We've spent years associating Robert Baratheon, Ned Stark, and Jaime Lannister with their TV actors, and seeing others wear those names can be jarring. But characters who never truly appeared on screen—like Rhaegar or Aerys—have an advantage. There's no definitive live-action version to displace, so Noah Ritter and Michael Shaeffer can make these roles their own. Once you embrace that, The Mad King becomes far more than a nostalgic exercise.
The Fall of the Targaryen Dynasty
The first half unfolds at the legendary Tourney at Harrenhal, where Prince Rhaegar (Ritter) seeks support against his increasingly unstable father, King Aerys II (Shaeffer). The play assembles a remarkable cast: Lyanna Stark (Harmony Rose-Bremner), Eddard Stark (Michael Abubakar), Robert Baratheon (Callum Woodhouse), Elia Martell (Elizabeth Ayodele), Ashara Dayne (Tanisha Spring), and Brandon Stark (Luke Brady), among others.
This is where the play shines brightest. Harrenhal gives the large company room to breathe, letting relationships develop and the political chessboard come alive. A particularly chilling moment—Aerys commits a vile act of cruelty against a grieving Robert—prompts the Starks to pledge their banners to Rhaegar. The world would look vastly different had Rhaegar not been so impetuous.
The play is also funnier than you'd expect. Robert's drunken antics draw laughs, as they always have, and supporting characters steal scenes: Hughie O'Donnell's poisonous Varys and Richard Hansell's simpering Grand Maester Pycelle lean into heightened versions of themselves. The performances are exaggerated without becoming impersonations, and the humor never undercuts the lurking threat.
Ritter and Shaeffer Shine
Ritter's Rhaegar is fascinating because The Mad King resists turning him into the perfect lost prince of legend. He's intelligent, romantic, and well-intentioned, but also politically immature, dangerously obsessive, and reckless. There's a Hamlet-like quality—overwhelmed by expectation yet incapable of effective action. You suspect he'd be devoured by the likes of Rhaenyra, Daemon, or Aemond in House of the Dragon.
The irony in Aerys and Rhaegar's relationship is delicious: despite his madness, Aerys is the only one who sees through Rhaegar's folly. Shaeffer's performance finds shadows of humanity in Aerys—his memories of Summerhall and Rhaegar's birth show who he was before the monster—but never asks us to forgive him. This Aerys laughs at death and suffering, relishing his cruelty.
Rhaegar's romance with Lyanna (Rose-Bremner) becomes the focus as the play continues. Their meet-cute is joyful, but the production never endorses their choices. In fact, one of the play's strengths is its refusal to romanticize the decisions that led to catastrophe. For fans of Martin's work, this is a must-see—and for those who loved the TV show, it's a fresh perspective on the events that set everything in motion.
If you're hungry for more Martin adaptations, check out this underrated vampire novel or dive into the true story behind another HBO epic.
