Theatre: Deftly navigating a PC minefield

This sumptuous and sophisticated production of The King and I from Bartlett Sher acknowledges the musical’s cultural baggage, but interrogates it too

Jose Llana and Annalene Beechey in The King and I at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Pic: Johan Persson

The King and I

By Rodgers and Hammerstein

Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin

Rating:***

Until June 1

It is difficult to deny the discomfort that even a brief synopsis of The King and I elicits: a moral, educated Welsh woman teaches a Thai monarch the best of Western ways. It would be an injustice, however, to discount Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 stage musical solely on the basis of political correctness.

As an adaptation ...