Stratford-upon-Avon

Welcome.

The Game of Thrones Mad King stage play opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in July 2026.

Ten years in development, with George RR Martin very involved, it offers answers to some of the questions book fans have been asking for years about what happened before the main story, mysteries George RR Martin has been keeping secret for decades.

I'll give you my top ten reveals in just a moment, but first an important caveat, as well as an obvious spoiler warning if you're planning on seeing the play.

You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought or felt.

Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-trues, avoidance of big issues he wore his heart on his sleeve which made him a man to rely on to admire and in my case love he then reflected on where they first crossed paths at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and later a few years in London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in Star Trek said but patrick think of your stage career in the uk do you really want to risk getting lost in hollywood for years and years well he took the risk and thank goodness for us that he did for not just he his devoted trekkies but film and theater audiences who marveled at his uh using international celebrity and a star in a string of cinema successes x-men of course And in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Schaeffer, Pinter, and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon in London's West End and on Broadway.

But yeah, Ian McKellen said that Patrick was one of the guys that when he decided to come out, totally supported him and befriended him and became an activist for civil rights and women's rights and uh

And Animal Rights, too, who's a big advocate for, especially pit bulls, big advocate for pit bull rescue and advocacy.

And what did you do? You took your family to London and look around? Yes.

My wife's an English teacher, and we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, and we saw Les Miserables and the West End.

Oh, yeah.

It was just the hardest.

His co-star in the X-Men film, Sir Ian McKellen, says he was a man to rely on, to admire, and in his case, love.

The actor Zoe Wanamaker shared a flat with Stewart in Stratford-upon-Avon during their time at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He had a great sense of fun as well as seriousness, and it's made it much more Life with him, just sharing that sort of atmosphere with him was something that was to be, well, to be honoured in a way.

You pass it on.

I got in and met actors there.

I got homesick and left early so I wasn't really ready to go but I knew that there was a world out there and then I sort of started to explore theatre and going to Stratford-upon-Avon to the RSC seeing musicals in London and seeing this world open up.

I could probably do this and then auditioned for drama school.

And, uh, I went to Mountview in 1995 and had a three magnificent years there of meeting brilliant people and the great training.

I feel lucky.

I've been to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.

And one of the first things I saw when I walked in that building was a picture of Patrick Stewart performing as Macbeth.

And I just felt like I was in a special place knowing that this was a stage he performed on.

So bless this man, whether he knew he was part of it or not, I would say he did not, but he was chosen perfectly for it.

So on December eighth, twenty-twenty, William Bill Shakespeare, he's one year old in Warwickshire, of all places, which is also where Stra- uh, Stratford-upon-Avon is, uh, Shakespeare's theater.

So it had to be from that exact place.

Um, he became the first male to receive a vaccine or the jab, which is also very much like a spear.