Game of Thrones on Broadway: What happened at the Tourney at Harrenhal?

The other day, we learned that A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and a team of Broadway veterans will be mounting a Broadway play set in Westeros, featuring younger versions of several characters we got to know on Game of Thrones. We don’t know the title yet, but we know it will be about the Tourney at Harrenhal.

What is the Tourney at Harrenhal? It comes up several times in A Song of Ice and Fire and on Game of Thrones. Littlefinger lays out the broad strokes to Sansa when they’re at Winterfell together:

What happened at the Tourney at Harrenhal?

The Tourney at Harrenhal, also known as Lord Whent’s great tournament, was put on by Lord Walter Whent to celebrate the nameday of his daughter, and also probably to display his wealth to the realm and show off his sons. The tourney lasted for 10 days, including five days of jousting. There was also a melee, an axe-throwing contest, a tournament of singers, a horse race, a mummer show, an archery competition, and more. This was the party of the year, and a lot of people showed up, including Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, Jaime Lannister, Barristan Selmy, Oberyn Martell, Rhaegar Targaryen and many more. Even King Aerys II Targaryen attended, although people were shocked to see his declining health. Aerys hadn’t quite earned the title of “the Mad King” yet, but he was well on his way.

What’s more, word is that the king only attended because Varys, his newly minted Master of Whisperers, told him of a plot by his son Rhaegar to meet with various powerful lords at the tourney so they could talk about how to kick him off the Iron Throne. There are even rumors that Rhaegar helped organize and fund the tourney as a pretext to do just this, which would certainly be a fun thing to see explored on stage.

Rheagar was at the center of a lot of drama at this tourney. He won the joust, defeating four knights of the Kingsguard. When it came time to crown someone the queen of love and beauty, he chose Lyanna Stark, who earlier had cried while Rhaegar performed a song (and then poured wine over her brother Benjen’s head when he made fun of her for it). Rhaegar laid a crown of winter roses in her lap. This was an enormous scandal, seeing as how Rhaegar was already married to Elia Martell and Lyanna was promised to Robert Baratheon.

There were other dramas at the Tourney, like the lady Ashara Dayne dancing with a young Ned Stark, King Aerys knighting a 15-year-old Jaime Lannister, or the diminutive Howland Reed (probably) entering the lists as the mysterious Knight of the Laughing Tree, but the blooming relationship between Rheagar and Lyanna was definitely the most memorable thing about the Tourney, and the most dangerous. Not long after, Rheagar and Lyanna absconded together to Dorne where Lyanna would eventually give birth to their baby Aegon Targaryen, better known as Jon Snow. Their flight was one of the biggest precipitating events that led to Robert’s Rebellion. By the end of that war, Rhaegar, Lyanna and the Mad King would all be dead, Robert Baratheon would be on the throne, Ned Stark would be taking an infant Jon Snow to Winterfell, and a newborn Daenerys Targaryen would be getting whisked across the Narrow Sea.

The Tourney at Harrenhal vs Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

There’s a sense of doom that hangs over the Tourney at Harrenhal that undercuts all the joyous festivities. Toss in lighter moments and a dash of Game of Thrones-style backstage politicking, and I can see it being very compelling on stage.

I think the simplicity of the story — it’s about a bunch of people in the same space for 10 days — gives it an advantage over Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, to which it will inevitably be compared. That play picked up with Harry Potter and the gang years after the end of J.K. Rowling’s book series, and was mostly concerned with Harry’s son Albus, who’s attending Hogwarts. It takes place over a number of years, was so sprawling it had to be split into two separate shows, and featured elaborate effects that made it a challenge to mount. Plus, the twists and turns of the plot didn’t go over well with a lot of fans, although the play did clean up at the box office.

From the jump, I think The Tourney at Harrenhal (that’s what I’m calling the play until we get an official title) sounds like a more interesting show, and I’m curious to see how it goes over when it debuts in 2023 on Broadway in New York City, on London’s West End and in Australia.

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