Rendering 7

The article published on the website www.telegraph.co.uk on 14 Feb 2013, is headlined “Helen Mirren: My living portrait of the Queen”. The article is written by By Sarah Cromptonand. In this article   Actress Helen Mirren, director Stephen Daldry and writer Peter Morgan explain why they are putting Queen Elizabeth II on stage in their new play, The Audience.

The author also makes special emphasize on  the fact that yet ever since she played the title role in The Queen – the 2006 film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Peter Morgan – the two have become muddled in people’s minds, making the Queen seem slightly more beautiful than she is and Mirren rather more regal. Then the author goes to the aims. The aim is, first and foremost, to give audiences a good night out. But there is a serious purpose beneath these imagined conversations between a monarch and her subjects. “As soon as you see the Queen and the prime minister, it somehow goes to the core of what it is to be one of us,” he says. “It’s a play about being British and how our country is put together.” Daldry adds, “And the nature of the constitutional monarchy. What exactly is the relationship between state and crown and how has that been negotiated down the years. It’s fascinating.” On stage, she does not portray the Queen at just one time of her life, but back into her youth. It means she has to age both down and up with the help of wigs, costumes and subtle shifts in diction. “Her voice has changed so hugely that if I can somehow access that young voice, that does so much,” says Mirren. It is, she adds with a wry smile, “easier to get older than younger, unfortunately.”

The author notices that the actress is understandably wary of being too closely identified with the Queen. In person, she is absolutely nothing like either the monarch – or her own slightly glacial public persona. The beauty and elegance are there, but she has a sharp wit, direct opinions, and a mischievous humour: she prods Daldry in the ribs when he fails to say how much he was looking forward to working with her; she roars with laughter when Morgan teases her about taking a chauffeur-driven car to work while imagining the Queen separated from the general public.

Unfortunately, the author of the article doesn’t express his own opinion about this role of Helen Mirren. To my mind it is very hard to play the Queen. It is rather hard to sit very straight, folding and unfolding hands from a resting position.