Some slightly confusing chronology: this
is not the play of the movie, but rather the play that inspired the
movie, although this national tour is the play’s first full staging. As
such, any comparisons should be couched not in terms of how it differs
from Tom Hooper’s film, but of changes made by the film to David
Seidler’s original portrait of the relationship between the stammering
King George VI and his unconventional Australian speech therapist
Lionel Logue.
Unsurprisingly, it transpires that matters were simplified for the
screen, even though the stage version plays for 10-15 minutes less.
Seidler’s stage script gives greater prominence to the British polity’s
awareness of the threat of fascism (and also of Soviet communism), in
particular to Edward VIII’s crass admiration of Hitler. In this
respect, the single speech alluded to in the title (as well as the more
general sense of diction), George VI’s radio address to the British
Empire on the outbreak of World War II, is more clearly a culmination
of political as well as personal and royal strands. Winston Churchill’s
position is more historically accurate here, though still overly
charitable: we see only an attenuated representation of his loyalty to
King Edward on the matter of abdication before Churchill, so to speak,
crosses the floor on the issue. And both the main female characters are
much less sympathetic: Queen Elizabeth is not just sardonic and
reserved but actively hostile to Logue (which perhaps explains why
Seidler’s project was put on hold for over 20 years during the Queen
Mother’s lifetime), and Myrtle Logue has a much greater presence,
constantly urging her husband to return to Australia and painting their
remaining in Britain as spousally inconsiderate towards her.
In the two central roles, Charles Edwards once more confirms his skill
at showing the human face of patrician figures as “Bertie” and Jonathan
Hyde is a tad more sepulchral though scarcely less wry than Geoffrey
Rush as Logue. Adrian Noble’s touring production, staged against a huge
rotating picture frame, enjoys casting de luxe. Charlotte Randle as
Myrtle, Joss Ackland as George V, Emma Fielding as Queen Elizabeth,
Michael Feast all gas and gaiters as Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo
Lang and Ian McNiece, who now appears to have a similar monopoly on
portrayals of Churchill to that secured by Robert Hardy a generation
ago, all appear in subordinate and relatively un(der)demanding roles.
Written for the Financial
Times.