Rehearsal Pics: Helen Mirren & cast in Audience rehearsals
Rehearsal shots have been released for the upcoming production of The Audience starring Oscar-winner Helen Mirren which runs at the Gielgud Theatre from 5 March (previews from 15 February).
Stephen Daldry‘s production has already drawn in a box office advance of £2 million, and, opposite Mirren’s Queen, stars Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher.
For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. The Audience breaks this contract of silence and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can’t help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases. From young mother to grandmother these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age.
Cast also includes Nathaniel Parker, Michael Elwyn, Rufus Wright, Robert Hardy and Paul Ritter. It runs until 15 June.
– All photos by Johan Persson