The Audience

Just took in Helen Mirren in The Audience as part of the Cineplex Live from The National Theatre in London.

What a wonderful performance. This was the original version of the stage show. Mirren is currently starring in it in New York.

She recreates what it might have beem like to listen in on the Queen’s weekly audiences with her Prime Ministers- from Winston Churchill to .David Cameron.

It’s witty and poignant and very perceptive. it gives you a glimpse of politics from an oddly non-political point of view. Who would ever guess that socialist Harold Wilson, the quiet Oxford don from grimly working class Huddersfield, was her favourite PM. Yet she asked her to invite her to tea at number 10. 

or was James Callaghan her favourite.

one thing’s for sure. It wasn’t Maggie Thatcher.

You get the feeling Mirren has come to admire the Queen.  In the interview after the show she talks about how she has studied her speech and her mannerisms in order to portray the Queen accurately. 

Cineplex is doing a great job with theatre and opera “live.” They’re putting on Last Night of The Proms live from the Royal Albert Hall on Sept. 12.