Helen Mirren gives a regal audience

The Audience
National Theatre, London
Written by Peter Morgan
Directed by Stephen Daldry

This latest National Theatre Live production sees Helen Mirren revisiting her Academy Award-winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.

Written by Peter Morgan, who also scripted The Queen, and directed by Stephen Daldry, screenings of the film have broken box office records for National Theatre Live’s screened events and seen Dame Helen win an Olivier Award for her part.

The film follows, although not chronologically, 60 years of Elizabeth's meetings with each of her 12 prime ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace.

These meetings, instigated by Queen Victoria at which the PM had to stand the whole time, is a remarkable tradition which gives the sovereign an unparallel view of the sweep of history, with the country's leader discussing informally what is happening that week in politics.

It is a meeting at which no others are present and there are no official records. 

The play provides what could be an insider's view on the life of a queen – or what Elizabeth refers to as being “A tribal leader in an exotic costume” or “A postage stamp with a pulse”.

It examines the relationships which developed between the sovereign and her PMs, with Peter Morgan inventing what the two participants might have said to each other about particular events and individuals.

There are also some great lines, with Elizabeth noting that “It’s a dangerous business, reading newspapers”.

In discussing their backgrounds she and John Major come to the conclusion that he, with only three O Levels, and she with none (having been home schooled) that the country was being led by the two of the least educated people in the land.

Ungraciously observes

She also very ungraciously observes that double-barrelled names are just common.

Only eight of the PMs come on stage and James Callahan only enters to tell the Queen (and us) that he is aggrieved by being left out of her list of PMs which she recounts.

Tony Blair doesn’t get on stage, probably because he is out of favour, Edward Heath because he needs to be forgotten and Sir Alex Douglas-Home presumably because he has a double-barrelled name.

Winston Churchill, the first PM in her reign, is played by Edward Fox, who just happens to be the same age as Churchill was at the time.

He gives us a nicely pompous Churchill who has great difficulty in conversing, sounding as though he is giving a public address the whole time.

Getting a couple of well-deserved rounds applause is Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, who is in her best imperious form, laying down the law and having a go at Elizabeth for expressing a personal point of view.

The playwright  and the actors manage to get the nuances of each of the PMs just right, with some of their dialogues sounding like the speech bites they are known for. But there are also some more telling moments when they talk about personal issues – John Major’s regret at not having stayed as a don.

The conversations are entertaining and padded out with tales and incidents which the playwright has invented and may or may not have occurred.

Like Elizabeth suggesting to an apoplectic Churchill that she intended to take her husband's name – Mountbatten. Churchill points out that it’s not his real name and he is really a Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which would not go down well with the public.

Frequently in their discussions central issues for the Queen are posed, such as how to separate the person from the position as well as her personal and politician positions on issues such as social change and foreign policy.

Various political matters arise – the Suez Crisis, the future of the monarchy and Diana. Several issues, particularly in her conversations with David Cameron, are up to date – like the eurozone crisis.

Helen Mirren creates a brilliant Elizabeth II as she moves from a slightly naive 26 year old to an attentive, questioning middle-aged woman and on to a world-weary but alert older woman.

She adopts gestures, movement, phrasing and emotions skilfully for each of the sovereign’s ages.

Equally clever are the remarkable changes of costume and wig to take her from decade to decade. These changes seem to happen as if by magic (she has a team of dressers off and on stage – and out of sight) and each is greeted with applause from the audience.

Helen Mirren delivers some outstanding acting and she and her supporting cast provide some great moments of emotional power and comedy.