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The Audience is a play by the British playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan. The play centers on weekly meetings, called audiences, between Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers. The play premiered in the West End in 2013 at the Gielgud Theatre. A Broadway production opened in 2015 starring Dame Helen Mirren, as well as a West End revival in London starring Dame Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead role. Advice regarding the political and historical content of the weekly audiences was provided by Professor Vernon Bogdanor (Emeritus Professor of Government at Oxford University) the former Tutor of David Cameron, the current Prime Minister.

- Courtesy of Wikipedia

Synopsis

The play is set in Buckingham Palace, in England. The time – the present (1952) – to present (2015)

“The Audience not only provides the illusion of observing, firsthand, how Queen Elizabeth operates behind the scenes, as she meets with British prime ministers from Winston Churchill, to David Cameron in weekly sessions of which — the script assures us — only the two participants know what really happened. The show also allows the actress playing Elizabeth to demonstrate her quick-change virtuosity in becoming the queen at different ages, from 1951 to the present, before our very eyes. You can also expect a lively and expansive tutorial on a number of subjects, including the constitutional monarchy of Britain (and the role of the queen in government), the central crises — political and personal — during Elizabeth’s reign, and the provenance of paintings and furniture in rooms at Buckingham Palace and Balmoral Castle.”

- Ben Brantley of The New York Times