215 replies to this topic

[Cat6]

armadillo, on 04 January 2013 - 04:24 PM, said:

  She was a disaster when I saw it as her costume literally fell apart...

Someone in the UK once described Helen as a "raver".  She said that her kit used to fall off early on (meaning in Helen's life timeline, not early on in a play or movie). So maybe this was an echo of that era! :-)

[Cat6]

itsuckstobeme, on 04 January 2013 - 06:02 PM, said:

I have no desire to see Helen MIrren on stage again ,but the play itself sounds interesting. Not much availability on the Delfont website. I hope they will offer day seats.

It does sound interesting... that someone would devote so much imagination to this dull gray, pinstripped topic. I just think there must be a jewel in there!

[Cat6]

Latecomer, on 04 January 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

I too like Madame de Sade but was in that happy place where you have read how rubbish something is, so have very low expectations and are pleasantly surprised. Also it was my birthday and I was having a lovely lone day out, being entirely selfish and doing what I wanted. I remember the dresses and how fabulous Judi was....

The original play was much longer (truly sado-masochistic!). I was worried I wouldn't understand what the actors were saying, and that my husband would be mad at me for dragging him to it!

[DanielWhit]

I've shelled out.. £10. Upper/Grand/whatever-they-call-it slips seat. Figured it was worth a punt for that.

[Nicholas]

This has no real appeal to me.  I have a horrible image of this being just a series of consecutive and probably very similar two-handers with Queenie dropping co-stars as she goes along.  13 Prime Ministers in, say, 150 minutes is about 12 minutes a PM.  Either Morgan needs to think of a clever way around it or it'll just be watching Helen Mirren get old on stage whilst actors play political kareoke.  But then again, I'm usually wrong about these things.

[AnnieInTheStalls]

Yes it will be interesting to see how they get a satisfying drama out of the premise. But there are many fine actors involved, and I want to see Haydn Gwynne as Maggie. Phedre cured me of any urge to see Helen Mirren on stage, but she'll probably be much better in this.

[Cat6]

Wow, that Phedre must have been something to talk about. We saw D. Rigg in this at the end of the century and she was amazing. I wouldn't buy Helen in this, either. But as the Queen, well, let me collect the experiences while I can.

A few days later we're visiting Buck House (again) for the Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashions.

[armadillo]

Cat6, on 04 January 2013 - 07:41 PM, said:

Someone in the UK once described Helen as a "raver".  She said that her kit used to fall off early on (meaning in Helen's life timeline, not early on in a play or movie). So maybe this was an echo of that era! :-)

IIRC she did get her top off but she also did a lot of flouncing and arm-waving a la Glenda Jackson and tassles from her breastplates fell off. I had the privilege of being in the front row for a preview so I got to hear the prompter rather more than most audience members do (though that was for the benefit of the co-star rather than Dame Helen)

[Honoured Guest]

Nicholas, on 05 January 2013 - 04:37 AM, said:

This has no real appeal to me.  I have a horrible image of this being just a series of consecutive and probably very similar two-handers with Queenie dropping co-stars as she goes along.  13 Prime Ministers in, say, 150 minutes is about 12 minutes a PM.  Either Morgan needs to think of a clever way around it or it'll just be watching Helen Mirren get old on stage whilst actors play political kareoke.  But then again, I'm usually wrong about these things.

If you recall Stephen Daldry's amazing production of Machinal, which also presented a female central character in a series of encounters, you might have very high expectations of this.

[xanderl]

Peter Morgan writes about the play, including details of the form it will take ...

http://www.guardian....-audience-queen

Spoiler

it doesn't feature all the PMs, and it's non-linear