The King's Speech

Theatre Royal, Bath

What a fantastic coup for the Theatre Royal  to get this play – Bath is one of only half a dozen places it visits – before it goes on to take London's West End by storm. After it heads off to Broadway,  it will certainly be one of the top must-see plays of the year right around the globe.

Better yet, it carries the Bath stamp wherever this production goes starring as it does the  charismatic Bath-based stage and screen star Jonathan Hyde as the king's speech therapist.

Following the huge success of the  recent film, there can be few people who don't know about the story of the Australian therapist Lionel Logue who helped the new king – suddenly flung into the spotlight after the abdication – overcome his crippling difficulty when speaking in public.

It's a powerful plot with great technical devices on stage to keep the action going at a good pace. Quite literally in some cases with characters walking fast over moving bits of stage .

Maybe it is because of the film but the secondary storyline of Logue's wife wanting to return home to Australia seems not to fit totally comfortably occasionally  feeling like an unnecessary distraction.

But it is a minor quibble with what is an evening of great entertainment.

In short brush strokes the play paints a vivid picture of the 1930s with Hitler on the rampage, a crisis looming over the monarchy and the jockeying for position among  top politicians and between parliament and the Church of England.

But the core of the play is the relationship between Logue and the new king,  brilliantly played by Charles Edwards, as they explore new ways  to help Bertie deliver key speeches that will be carried around the world by radio.

Interesting as that is, it is perhaps the character of Queen Elizabeth (Emma Fielding) that may interest us most since she played such a key role in royal affairs right up to Princess Diana and beyond.

In a word, brilliant – and remember we saw it in Bath first.

Christopher Hansford