The King's Speech

Tour synopsis, cast & creatives

Bertie, the Duke of York, was never meant to be King. Shy, fragile, afflicted with profound stuttering, his occasional public speeches were a torment to himself and worse to those forced to listen. When his older brother David, now Edward VIII, abdicates his throne in exchange for the bed of a twice divorced American with Nazi sympathies, Bertie s wife Elizabeth turns to a Harley Street speech therapist from Australia: Lionel Logue. What transpires in the privacy of Logue s consultation room is the heart of this drama. Can Bertie, the reluctant King, be ?cured to get through his Coronation, and even more daunting, speak via the BBC to anxious millions throughout the world, rallying the troops, a nation, and an Empire to defend democracy? At the crucial moment comes the disclosure that Logue is not what he seems. Carefully researched, this is the true story of a friendship that changed history.

Cast/Performers

Peter Sandys-Clarke (Bertie), Arthur Hughes (Lionel Logue), Aamira Challenger (Elizabeth), Rosa Hesmondhalgh (Myrtle Logue / Wallis Simpson), Christopher Naylor (Cosmo Lang), Stephen Rahman Hughes (David / Stanley Baldwin), Jim Kitson (King George V / Winston Churchill)

Creatives/Company

Author: David Seidler
Producer: The Watermill
Director(s): Emma Butler, Tyler Holland (assistant)
Design: Bretta Gerecke
Lighting: Ryan Day
Sound: Robin Colyer
Music: Robin Colyer
Other: Tom Nickson (production manager)
Stage Manager(s): Cat Pewsey, Eleanor Walton (deputy), Leila Stephenson (assistant)