The King's Speech stage tour brings stammering workshops to Cirencester

A new stage production of The King's Speech is touring the UK with school workshops aimed at raising awareness of stammering. The play is currently being staged in Cirencester. Its workshops, called The Speaking Part, are running alongside the production and are due to follow the show around the UK next year.

The story is already well known from the 2010 film, which starred Colin Firth and won four Oscars. It tells how George VI, the grandfather of the current King, became monarch and prepared to address Britain at the start of the Second World War. George, known as Bertie to those close to him, had a severe stammer. His wife, Queen Elizabeth, persuaded him to see the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue.

In the stage version, Lionel Logue is played by the Neighbours actor Stefan Dennis. He said attitudes to stammering have changed a great deal since his own school days in the 1960s. He recalled that children who stammered were teased, and that people often did not understand the condition. He said he had learned to have patience.

The King is played by George Rainsford, who has appeared in Casualty and Call the Midwife. He said there is a responsibility to represent stammering accurately and to show it as part of the King's character, not the whole of it. He pointed to George VI's other qualities, including the way he overcame problems with confidence and became a voice for Britain at a critical time.

The workshops are taking place at Cirencester King's Hill School, where pupils met cast members from Neighbours and Casualty, as well as Jessie Rue from The Traitors. Rue, who has a stammer, said the subject is rarely discussed and that she hoped her involvement would raise awareness and give hope to others. Pupils said the sessions had taught them more about what stammering involves. One described it as an internal battle to get words out, rather than simply a struggle to speak.

The workshops are intended to help children understand why people stammer and how to behave around them. The stated aim is simple: to spread the word and give a voice to people who stammer. The production and its workshops will continue around the UK next year.