Julie Benfield and Alex Tiller – photo © Sean Owen, Reflective Arts

Royce Ryton’s 1972 play Crown Matrimonial gives us an (imagined) insight into the inner workings of the British royal family during the abdication crisis of 1936. The new King, Edward VIII, was infatuated with the twice divorced Wallis Simpson and wanted to marry her. At the time this was considered incompatible with his role as head of the established church. The irony at the heart of this production is that Edward’s infatuation led directly to his brother George VI becoming King, who in turn was succeeded by Elizabeth II and now Charles who has done exactly what Edward could not, marrying a divorced woman whose husband is still alive.

The play has a slightly claustrophobic feel being set entirely in one room over a period of several weeks in Marlborough House, the home of Edward’s mother Queen Mary where Ryton sets the increasingly tense supposed dialogue between Edward, Queen Mary and other sundry royals. However the well paced dialogue soon draws you into the scene.

Dominating proceedings Queen Mary (Julie Benfield) feels that her duty is to protect the institution of the monarchy, which for her means that Edward (Alex Tiller) should dump the divorcée pronto and get on with being a proper king. Also brought in are his sister Mary (Emily Cooper) and his brother Bertie (Stephen Crawford-Brown) the stammering invalid who soon becomes George VI. His wife Elizabeth (Gee Hill) gave this play a unique angle at the time of writing in portraying a still living royal who we would know as the Queen Mother.

The play is well written and builds slowly to a crisis where passions are high but subdued by royal etiquette and manners. It is not a spoiler to say that Ed never quite gets to wallop his mum even though he gets angry enough to. As you may guess I am not a monarchist by any standard, but this performance held my attention throughout and has some genuinely funny moments slipped in to catch you unawares. It gives an understanding of an important historical event for country and empire in a very accessible format.

Director Zanna Foley-Davies has marshalled her very capable cast to give strong performances. Julie Benfield and Alex Tiller dominate the stage as Mary and her son, but every cast member gives us a well played and convincing character – Stephen Crawford-Brown tackles the difficult task of giving us a stammering Bertie with some aplomb. Gee Hill is surprisingly fierce as Elizabeth, cementing the popular impression that the old Queen Mum was a solid power broker in the royal setup.

The whole theatre has been given a bit of a royal makeover, with an interesting display in the bar and one of the fanciest sets you could expect to find in modern theatre. I felt obliged to enjoy a glass of gin in homage to the Queen Mother in the interval.

Overall this is a very slick production of an engaging text that presents an historical landmark entirely in the setting of a family psychodrama. Even if like me you are a curmudgeonly disrespectful republican I am sure you will be entertained by this show, unlike Queen Mary who is plainly not amused. It does make us question the bizarre tradition of drawing our head of state from a dysfunctional family born of a rather tiny available pool of suitable breeding stock. If Charles III is weekending at Sandringham he should pop in to the excellent Sewell Barn show and perhaps savour a little schadenfreude at his predecessor’s discomfort facing an identical problem to his own before accession.

I note that the next production at the Barn is to be The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, no doubt to restore harmony to the Socialist Republic of Norwich!

©Julian Swainson, Norwich Eye, 15 January 2026

Crown Matrimonial is at Sewell Barn Theatre15-17 & 21-24 January 2026 at 7.30 pm, with a matinée on 24 Jan at 2.30. Go to www.sewellbarn.org for tickets