Imagine yourself as a child terrified of your own parents, because every time you speak you disappoint them. Teased. Unable to share a joke with friends. Trapped in a body that refuses to obey your commands.
Imagine being faced with the biggest moment of your life, and you cannot find your voice. The weight of the nation sits on your shoulders as you assume a role bound by duty and your family is in crisis. Your only hope lies in someone from the opposite side of the world, in geography, stature and convention.
This new production of David Seidler’s play The King’s Speech takes an intimate view of one of life’s most unorthodox relationships between Bertie, the soon-to-be-crowned King George VI, and speech therapist Lionel Logue. As Hitler’s threat on Europe encroaches, Bertie fights his own battle at the time his country needs him most.
Performance schedule
Mon – Sat 7.30pm (24 Sep 7pm)
Thu & Sat 2.30pm (excl. 21 Sep)
Tickets from £20
Concessions available.
Book early for the best prices across our performances, ticket prices may vary according to demand.
Performance information
Running time approx. 2 hour 10 minutes including an interval.
Most suitable for ages 12+
This production features haze and strong language.
The play also contains depictions of stammer, themes of classism, death and war, and descriptions of child abuse.
Post show panel discussion
Join us for a Post-Show Panel Discussion following the performance on 18 October, which will focus on the representation and treatment of stammering in the production and how this differs to the modern day.
Panellists include member of The King's Speech cast and creative team including Emma Butler (Director), Peter Sandys-Clarke (Bertie). Tyler Holland (Assistant Director), and guests from The Fluency Trust, including Speech Therapist Alex Ford, and Liam Wakeling, who will share his experience of stammering and how he has learned to embrace his stammer as a unique part of his identity.
This event will take place in the theatre shortly after the performance and will last approximately 30 minutes.
Food and Drink
We have a range of food and drink options available, from light bites to a full pre-show meal. You can view our main menu here.
Audio flyer
BSL flyer
The Watermill Theatre · The Kings Speech
Directed by EMMA BUTLER
Design by BRETTA GERECKE
Lighting Design by RYAN DAY
Sound Design and Composition by ROBIN COLYER
Assistant Director - TYLER HOLLAND
Production Manager - TOM NICKSON
Company Stage Manager - CAT PEWSEY
Deputy Stage Manager - ELEANOR WALTON
Assistant Stage Manager - LEILA STEPHENSON
Audio Description from JO MYERS
Captioning by MIN GILBY
Peter Sandys-Clarke
Bertie
Theatre credits include: Private Lives & A Touch of Danger (Theatre Royal Windsor); The Importance of Being Ernest (UK Tour); Ross (Chichester Festival Theatre); Before The Party (Theatre Royal Windsor & Tour); The Manual Oracle (The Yard); The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith & On Approval (Jermyn Street Theatre); Dandy Dick (Theatre Royal Brighton & Tour); Notes For A Young Gentleman - Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre); Pygmalion (Chichester Festival Theatre & Garrick Theatre); When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre); A Daughter's A Daughter (Trafalgar Studios); The Browning Version (Theatre Royal Bath & Tour); The Apple Cart (Theatre Royal Bath); Jingo (Finborough Theatre); The Letter (Wyndham’s Theatre & Tour); Journey's End (Playhouse Theatre & Duke Of York's Theatre).
Television credits include: Masters of the Air; Ghosts; Secret Invasion; The Royals; The Crown; Indian Summers; Doctors; The Charles Dickens Show (which he co-wrote with Jeff Rawle for BBC); Desperate Romantics; Bonekickers; Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me; Torchwood; Foyle's War.
Film credits include: Downton Abbey; Joy; Napoleon; What's Love Got To Do With It?; Edge of Tomorrow.
Arthur Hughes
Lionel Logue
Theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), Richard in Richard III & Wars of the Roses (RSC), La Cage Aux Folles (Park Theatre), Vassa (Almeida Theatre), Our Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest & Julius Caesar (Sheffield Theatres), Saint Joan (Donmar Warehouse), The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae Theatre Company/National Theatre)
TV credits include: Shardlake (Disney +), The Jetty (BBC1), Then Barbara Met Alan (BBC Two), The Innocents (Netflix), Help (Channel 4) Mincemeat (Channel 4), Shakespeare & Hathaway (BBC1)
Aamira Challenger
Elizabeth
Aamira trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York.
Theatre credits include: Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution (London County Hall), The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe), Breeding (King’s Head Theatre); The Lavender Hill Mob (UK Tour); Macbeth (US Tour); The Great Gatsby (US Tour); Blithe Spirit (Theatre Royal Bath / UK Tour & West End), Romeo and Juliet (Wales Millennium Centre); Macbeth (The Shakespeare Project); The Case of the Frightened Lady (UK Tour); The Bacchanals (Etcetera Theatre).
TV and Film credits include: Paper Straws (Roundhouse), Circle Triangle (Bambira), and Panorama (BBC).
Rosa Hesmondhalgh
Myrtle Logue / Wallis Simpson
Rosa Hesmondhalgh is an actor and writer from Yorkshire. She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2017 and has since written and acted in theatre and TV. Her award-winning one-woman show Madame Ovary about her experience with ovarian cancer toured nationally and is being adapted for TV.
Theatre credits include: We Could All Be Perfect (Sheffield Crucible), Children of the Night (Cast Doncaster), The Snow Queen (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre), Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Storyhouse). Radio and Audio credits include: Just A Woman (BBC Radio 4), Sour Hall (Audible/Naked Productions), Requiem (BBC Radio 4/Naked Productions). TV credits include: The Long Shadow (ITV), Bridgerton S3 (Netflix).
Christopher Naylor
Cosmo Lang
Christopher Naylor trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
Theatre credits include: Dangerous Corner and Hard Times (Watermill Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Northcott Theatre, Exeter), Lady Windermere’s Fan (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Song Of The Western Men (Minerva, Chichester), Not About Heroes (UK Tour), The Bacchae (Thiasos Theatre, Cyprus), A Christmas Carol (Creation Theatre, Oxford), The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Royal, York), French Without Tears (Mill At Sonning), Hay Fever (UK Tour), Blue/Orange (New Vic Theatre, Stoke), Leaving, Mountain Hotel, Protest, Mary Goes First, Factors Unforeseen, The Man Who Pays The Piper, The Stepmother, the Middlemarch trilogy (all Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), The Woman In Black (West End, London), Private Lives (UK Tour), War Horse (UK/International tour, National Theatre), The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher (Watermill Theatre).
Television credits include: BUGS, Warriors, Sweet Revenge, In Love With Barbara, The Four Minute Mile, He Knew He Was Right, Tales From The Old Bailey (all BBC), Plastic Man (ITV), The Alienist (TNT/Paramount), The Crown (Netflix).
Film credits include: Benediction (directed by Terence Davies).
Radio & Audio credits include: From Fact To Fiction – Artefacts (BBC Radio 4), Good Old Uncle Joe (ABC Australia), Bats and Lennox And Ben (BBC Radio 3). Christopher plays Harry Sullivan in Doctor Who for Big Finish Productions
Stephen Rahman Hughes
David / Stanley Baldwin
Theatre credits include: Mrs Warren's Profession (Theatre Royal Bath); Broken Wings (Charing Cross Theatre); Ola Bola (Enfiniti Producitons); Aladdin (Prince Edward Theatre/Disney Theatrical Productions); Rock of Ages (UK Tour/ATG); The West End Men (Milton Morrissey Productions); West End Stars in Concert; Puteri Gunung Ledang; Seasons of Love (Enfiniti Productions); Malaysian Philharmonic Concert (MPO); The Merchant of Venice; One Night Stand (C Company); The Country Wife (Watford Palace Theatre); Bombay Dreams (Really Useful Group); West Side Story (Pola Jones); Devil’s Pie (Red Rain); Samson and Delilah (Royal Opera House); Les Troyens (La Scala); Venus and Adonis; Dido and Aeneas (Andrew George and Company).
Television credits include: Sister Boniface Mysteries S3 (BBC); The Three Body Problem (Netflix/Bighead Littlehead); Almost Never Series 2 (CBBC); Eastenders (BBC); The Bible (Lightworkers Media Ltd.); Doctors (BBC); The Afternoon Play ‘Molly’; Trouble in Tahiti (BBC); The Kitchen Musical (The Group Entertainment); The Leftovers (Banoo Productions); The Royal Variety Show (Sony BMG); Emmerdale (ITV); Dream Team (Hewland International); Bad Girls (ITV,Shed Productions); Swinger (Landseer Productions).
Film credits include: Matilda (Netflix); Shadowplay (kino-i Pictures, 27 ten Productions); Highlander- The Source (Dimension Pictures); Malay Chronicles (KRU Films); Los Dan Faun (Visionworks); Golden Bowl (Merchant Ivory Productions).
Jim Kitson
King George V / Winston Churchill
Theatre credits include: COLD BUFFET (Live Theatre); RED ELLEN (Nottingham Playhouse); WIND IN THE WILLOWS (Derby Theatre); TREASURE ISLAND (Derby Theatre); A VIKING CHRISTMAS - also MD (Queen's Hall Arts Centre); VANESSA - also Director (Purple Theatre); THE GRINNING MAN (Trafalgar Studios); PITMEN PAINTERS (New Vic Theatre); GRAPES OF WRATH (Nottingham Playhouse/Royal and Derngate/West Yorkshire Playhouse), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Shakespeare’s Globe), THE DROWNED MAN (Punchdrunk/National Theatre); RICHARD III, KING JOHN, TYNESIDE TALES (Royal Shakespeare Company); TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Manchester Royal Exchange); THE GRAPES OF WRATH (West Yorkshire Playhouse) ; A WALK ON PART: THE SLOW FALL OF NEW LABOUR (Soho Theatre); WHAT HAPPENED IS THIS (Tron, Glasgow); NOIR, THE BOY ON THE SWING, THE TAXI DRIVER'S DAUGHTER, 13.1 (Live Theatre, Newcastle); COOKING WITH ELVIS, OFFICE PARTY (Hull Truck); SON OF MAN, ANIMAL FARM, EDMOND, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (Northern Stage); TREASURE ISLAND, THE GIFT AND THE GLORY (Dukes, Lancaster); GREAT EXPECTATIONS (Aberystwyth Arts Centre); THE NEW TENANT (Hungarian State Theatre, Cluj, Romania) and RED ELLEN (Nottingham Playhouse).
Television credits include: DINOSAUR (Two Brothers Pictures); CLODAGH (Afternoon Picture); THE RED KING (UKTV/Quay Street Productions); LAND OF WOMEN (Apple+); KING GARY (SERIES 2); INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY (Company Pictures for BBC); VERA (ITV Studios); EMMERDALE (Yorkshire TV); JOE MADDISON'S WAR (Mammoth Productions for ITV1); TRACY BEAKER RETURNS (CBBC), BYKER GROVE (Zenith Entertainment for BBC).