Just saw it in a special National Theatre live broadcast from London, shown in our local art-house movie theater. It was pretty good. If you liked The Queen (same writer and star), or are a raging Anglophile and/or political junkie like me, you’d enjoy it. We see the Queen meeting with (most of) her Prime Ministers over the years, and occasionally talk to a younger version of herself about duty, decorum and a life in the spotlight.
Mirren is as good as ever, and you get an interesting overview of the Queen’s life, and British political history, in the course of 2 1/2 hours. There was a brief interview with the writer during the intermission, and a look at the costumes.
I have a friend who worked with Helen Mirren and said she was a true sweetheart in real life, and very down to earth and friendly with everyone on the set, down to the lowly caterers and crew and even the local townspeople where the film was being made.
How would you compare this to the film, “The Queen”?
Would the Royal Family be thrilled with the show, or find it offensive?
I also have read complimentary things about Mirren when she’s not in front of an audience or a camera.
The Queen focused on the monarch during a particularly trying but relatively brief time for her, as she dealt with the fallout from Diana’s death. The play has a much broader scope, touching on points in her life from Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936, when her father became King and she realized that her life would never be the same, up to the present day, when she meets with Prime Minister David Cameron. The play has more funny moments than the movie, but is more or less a drama.
I suspect the Royal Family would be neither thrilled nor offended. The play is basically respectful to the Queen, although there are passing references to the marital difficulties of her children, some criticism of the Royal Family for being too rich, elitist or out of touch, and there are times when the Queen seems uncharacteristically blunt, soul-baring or snappish. That’s just the theater for you.
We saw this as well, and enjoyed it. The dialog is all made up, of course. I can’t see the royals being annoyed by any of this. There are far worse things said, and far harsher portrayals.
Saw a telemovie the other night called Walking the Dogs, about the occasion many years ago when a man broke into the Palace and sat and chatted with the Queen for a while before the cavalry arrived. Emma Thompson plays the Queen.
V well written and acted, as a common man and the Queen try to find common ground between them where one of them is someone who is free to live an ordinary life and the other is practically never alone, never went to school, whose life is closely regimented and who has never ever been merely one face in a crowd except once in 1945.