Even dressed in his unceremonious undies Raymond Coulthard commands a dynamic stage presence and is in absolute control of his posture befitting his royal role. The scene is set with the agony of the morning ritual of being dressed by his maid and footman, an extravagantly formal affair he clearly detests (though as one born into the Royal family ‘Firm’ he knows nothing else). But also his regal exterior is constantly underpinned by his facial expressions that reveal a speech affliction with tics and stammers which are more pronounced at times of stress.
His wife Elizabeth (and Claire Lams makes a suitable acting match for Coulthard) takes into her head to find a speech therapist and tracks down Australian émigré Lionel Logue. Logue’s reputation precedes him having successfully ‘cured’ many of those suffering shell-shock and post-traumatic stress following the Great War. But sparks fly as the affectionately known Bertie (George V’s son and second heir to the throne) goes for his first session. He is astonished that Logue (a part just perfect for the much-talented Jason Donavon) refuses to bow down to his superiority and wants to work with him as an equal.
Bertie blazes out of his office but before leaving is given a His Master’s Voice vinyl recording of his reading of the famous Hamlet soliloquy. This has been made while Bertie wears headphones, a distraction technique that has become common practice in the contemporary treatment of stammering. What Logue goes on to reveal is how the stammer stems from bullying as a child from both family and carers and now he is under increasing pressure to perform public duties which rely on his reading voice.
This is largely due to his decadent elder brother’s scandalous affair with Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced and still-married American with ties to Nazi Germany. And with the clear looming of another world war both Churchill (a playful performance by Nicholas Blane) and Archbishop Cosmo Lang (for who Martin Turner piles on the pomp) see Bertie’s accession after his brother’s abdication as an inevitability.
The narrative is based on writer David Seidler’s real life experience for whom King George VI, as Bertie becomes, was a role model in overcoming his affliction. But on the way to wellbeing the monarch has most crucially learned the importance of friendship and of understanding ordinary men, previously totally taboo.
Unlike the recent documentary in the ‘Educating Yorkshire’ series – which saw a bullied schoolchild go through a similar curative process – I did manage to hold back the tears tonight. But still there is a great emotional depth to the partnership of the monarch and his healer with great performances brought out by Roxana Silbert’s direction. Tom Piper’s costumes really conjure up the Edwardian era and his semi-circular set is replete with panels that serve as uncluttered exits and entrances, whether it be to Logue’s office and apartment or the resplendence of Westminster (when we see the lineage that builds up to Georgian Britain).
Many reviewers are keen to prefer the film with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush which I thankfully hadn’t seen, but I would say that for its pure intensity and sustained tension the play really works to create a profoundly moving and thoroughly cathartic experience. This is one of two plays I’ve reviewed this week that have charities leafleting on the way out, and certainly the issues The King’s Speech brings up makes you want to do something about this still quite taboo subject. Whether it be through donation or getting involved in a more practical way as a volunteer or activist. So this is theatre that without didacticism cries out to us to question our own prejudices and bias and take a step toward a society that embraces difference as opposed to sticking on that all-encompassing label of ‘other’.
As seen on 26 May, Leeds Grand Theatre
Review by Rich Jevons
See the British Stammering Association website for more info: www.stammering.org