Do you hear an erudite echo of Richard II in King George’s oddly precise ravings? Bennett put it there. Did it occur to you that Shakespeare had his own mad old king, Lear? Bennett found that parallel early on, and made it the basis of a gorgeous scene. The combination of Bennett’s extraordinary wit and 20 years of buffing yields a play in which pretty much everything you’re likely to think of has been anticipated and beautifully wrought. According to a program note, the Madness on display in Penny Metropulos’s sharp new production for Chicago Shakespeare Theatre combines elements from all three previous incarnations. Bennett wrote the Oscar-nominated script for the 1994 movie version as well as an adaptation for the American stage. In fact, it flirts with coming off a little too perfectly at times, and no wonder: Brit playwright Alan Bennett has had multiple opportunities to fiddle with his already masterful account of an English monarch’s mental breakdown since it first saw light in 1991. The Madness of George III is as perfectly realized a play as you’re ever likely to see.
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