European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 13, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Hawthorne a hit As mad George Iii by Matt Wolf the associated press after winning a Tony in his first crack at Broadway Nigel Hawthorne is giving the performance of his life in the madness of George Iii. The 62-year-old actor known to followers of television s yes minister and Mapp and Lucia has had critics straining for tributes since the opening of the Alan Bennett play. From the opening scene where he survives an attempted stabbing by a minion armed with a dessert knife to later illness induced verbal ramblings the actor offers an incomparable study in Royalty gone to ruin. Dressed for most of the play in a Nightshirt As doctors bleed him and induce sweating in their search for a cure Hawthorne makes a Bumpious yet savvy figure at his Wisest when seemingly most deranged. If the scenario occasionally recalls King Lear playwright Bennett makes the link explicit. In the second act George Iii leads a recitation of Shakespeare s tragedy clearly aware of himself re enacting the tragedy. It took almost 200 years for medical historians to discover that George ill s Quot madness was in fact porphyria a genetically transmitted condition characterized by abdominal pain hypertension psychosis and discoloured urine. Thus Bennett s creation is the poignant victim not Nigel Hawthorne is receiving great Praise for his role in the madness of George lit. Only of medical ignorance e but also of his foppish son Michael Fitzgerald who can t wait to ascend the throne. Folded into the Story Are satiric touches that arc1 Vintage Bennett who last addressed the Royal family when he dramatized Queen Elizabeth ii in his 1988 play a question of attribution. This George Iii Calls his German Queen Janet Dale Quot mrs.  Bennett pokes fun at politicians who Ouma their Welcome making the whig statesman William Pitt Lulian Wadhams and his plea Tor Quot tie Mote years a sound suspiciously like Margaret Thatcher. 1 Here arc also Lete Romes to the Meric an revolution trom the British View one of the disasters of George s reign. One of Georges lust signs of distress is a spasm while speaking the word Stales a As in United stat Sand a similar incident neat the end indicates that his apparent remove in was not to last. In an interview i Law Home said his Tole was the most demanding of his c Afeei Quot it was an  to in of pirate a lot of qualities i have As an actor the Manu Side the a soul Sid also the ability to be emotional  i Lav Thorne whose role As the love Struc k . I new is m Shaden lands on Broadway demonstrated his ease at playing emotional extremes. Bennett said in an me Ivalew that he was aware of rewriting history. Quot the Stock English Liberal historians View is that George Iii was mad hoi Ause he stood in the Way of constitutional Reform and was a Lory a said the playwright who majored in history it Oxford. Quot i think More and More that a really been deconstructed in a was. Lit was called Farmer George so therefore it was assumed he1 was a Rural rustic fool. He Wasny to that at All. I be was Euite  Bennett is ice stored to Vav riling about re Al people1. In addition to his play about the Queen s e Counte r with the former spy Anthony Blunt Bennt to has written both a play and a separate1 in film about author fran Kalka is Well As a screenplay pm k i pour i us about the1 subversive playwright of it Piton. The madness of Gcorge Iii is so he ruled Ter run at least through june at the nationals i Yate Lton auditorium. It is Selling Well despite mixed reviews boost d no doubt by Bennett s stature and by unanimous acclaim Tor Hawthorne. Might new York Beckon t1 i Lav Thorne is wary knowing that the Broadway production of shadowlands floppy d. Quot i m not sure this would go in new York a said Hawthorne who found himself stopped nightly on Broadway at the stage door by to admirers of his foppish Georgie Pilson in Mapp and i Lucia and the scheming us Lumphrey in Quot yes  Quot it might be too Wordy too parochial too  Royal Shakespeare lineup includes 4 world premiere the associated press actor Kenneth Branagh playwright Peter Shaffer and director Peter Hall Are among the British theater notables who Wei be part of the Royal Shakespeare company s 1992 season. The lineup of 33 plays including four world premieres follows a year marked by poor reviews for some of the productions in Stratford England and variable attendance in London. Shaffer the Tony award winning author of Eques and amadeus will premiere his As yet untitled new play at the company s London base the barbican in the fall. Sir Peter Hall who staged those earlier plays will direct. Hall who founded the company in 1961, will also stage Shakespea ire s All s Well that ends Well opening june 30 at Stratford. Rosemary Harris now starring on Broadway in lost in Yonkers will play the countess. Branagh the theater and film actor will play the title role in Hamlet. Adrian Noble the company s artistic director will direct the production opening in London in december. The Stratford season opens april 1 with the taming of the shrew directed by Bill Alexander and starring Anton lesser As Petrucho. As you like it the Winter s tale the merry wives of Windsor and Antony and Cleopatra follow in the main stage Royal Shakespeare theater. Stratford s smaller Swan theater kicks off with John Gay s the beggar s opera directed by  and opening april 7. David Burt will play Mac Heath opposite Jenna Russell s Lucy Lockit. Next up is a Jovial Crew a rarely performed 1641 comedy by Richard Brome. Max Stafford Clark artistic director of the Royal Nurt theater in London direct k new plays in Stratford will ii Lude the Odyssey adapted from Homer by Caribbean poet and playwright Derek Walcott and the school of night a political thriller by Peter Whelan. Richard Nelson an american dramatist whose two shakespearean actors is now on Broadway will have the world premiere this summer in London of his new play Columbus to c inc Ide with the 500th anniversary of c Kristopher Columbus arrival in the americ As. The London season opens Marc h 11 with the Transfer from Stratford of Shakespeare s Henry fourth part i directed by Noble and starring Robert Stephens As fast at. Part j follows May 7. Other main stage product Lions in London will inc Lude Romes it and Julic to Ben Jonson s the a Weinot and the thebans a trilogy of Sophic Lex plays adapted by Limber Lake we Slenbaker. Trevor Nunn s two 1�?~iul Stratford Shakespeare classics will share the stage with four new plays. Product lion will arrive in London alter a National Lour.  Lor measure opens Marc h 10 at the Young Vic theater. Fits production c get i he1 Blue Angel follows at a West l and theater to be announced Fin c oin Pany c Arries a deficit of about $5 1 million but Noble said he would launch h a Lund raising c Campaign this year february 11, 1992 stripes Magazine 11