Will Adrian Noble Helm 'The King's Speech' on UK Stage?

Whatsonstage.com suggests today that The King's Speech, currently out in theaters starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, may be getting a stage adaptation in London. According to the report: "Speaking to the New York Times at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, the film's writer David Seidler - who is nominated for a best original screenplay Oscar - said: 'It will be on the West End of London in the fall, and Adrian Noble is directing it.'"

In fact, the project began as a play, having initially received a reading at London's Pleasance Theatre. No additional details about a potentiAl West End run, including casting possibilites have been suggested.

The King's Speech is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. The film won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.
The film stars Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, a speech therapist who helped George VI overcome a stammer. The film's script includes real quotations from the diaries and notes of Logue, which were discovered just nine weeks before photography began and quickly incorporated. Filming commenced in the United Kingdom in November 2009. The film was given a limited release in the United States on 26 November 2010 before being generally released on 10 December 2010 and it was given general release in the UK on 7 January 2011. The King's Speech received 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Actor (Firth), Director (Hooper) and Original Screenplay (Seidler), Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and Supporting Actor (Rush).

ADRIAN NOBLE is currently the Artistic Director of The Old Globe's Shakespeare Festival in San Diego. He led the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) as Artistic Director and Chief Executive from 1990-2003 where he produced nearly 300 productions. Mr. Noble's most recent theatre productions include The Madness of George III and King Lear for San Diego's Old Globe, Hamlet for the Stratford Festival of Canada, Hedda Gabler, Kean, Summer and Smoke and A Woman Of No Importance, The Home Place by Brian Friel at the Gate Theatre and the West End, Brand by Ibsen starring Ralph Fiennes, Pericles at The Roundhouse and Stratford and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at The London Palladium starring Michael Ball. In 1980 he joined the RSC as Assistant Director, becoming an Associate Director almost immediately. His first production for the RSC was Ostrovsky's The Forest which transferred first to the Warehouse and then to the Aldwych and was named Best Revival in the 1981 Drama Awards. In 1988 he was appointed Artistic Director of the RSC's Stratford season and in 1989 went on to be Artistic Director of the RSC London season. His RSC productions include A Doll's House, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, Henry V with Kenneth Branaugh, As You Like It, Macbeth, Kiss Me Kate, The Art of Success, The Plantagenets and The Master Builder. Mr. Noble's opera credits include Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Carmen in Paris and Mozart/ Da Ponts Trioligy in Lyon. His film of A Midsummer Night's Dream was released in 1995, and his book, How to do Shakespeare, was published in 2010.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos