With House of the Dragon escalating its body count as the season three finale approaches, another George R.R. Martin creation has been facing some chaos of its own, albeit of a far less gory variety. The prequel play Game of Thrones: The Mad King, which was officially confirmed back in February, is closing in on its opening after facing some bumps in the road along the way.
According to a newly updated report in Deadline, The Mad King finally presented its first preview on July 28. The show, which is adapted by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, was previously scheduled to begin previews at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on July 20. The first week of previews was then cancelled, including a July 25 performance that was cancelled that same day. Ticketholders were refunded, but as you can imagine, there was a lot of disappointment in the air. The Royal Shakespeare Company issued a statement to Deadline that read in part, “While we always work hard to avoid disappointment through cancelling performances, owing to the ambitious and epic nature of this production and faced with a number of unforeseen delays, we require additional time to bring Game of Thrones: The Mad King to a public audience.”
