The Audience
Written by	Peter Morgan
Date premiered	15 February 2013 (2013-02-15)
Place premiered	Gielgud Theatre London
Original language	English
Setting	Buckingham PalaceBalmoral Castle

The Audience is aplay by the British playwright and screenwriterPeter Morgan.^[1] The play centres on weekly meetings, called audiences, between QueenElizabeth II (originally played byHelen Mirren) and herprime ministers. It premiered in theWest End in 2013, at the Gielgud Theatre. ABroadway production opened in 2015, also starring Mirren. A West End revival played in London in 2015 starringKristin Scott Thomas in the lead role.

The Audience is centred on the weekly audiences given by QueenElizabeth II toprime ministers from her accession in 1952 until her death.^[2] Three Prime Ministers are omitted from the play:Harold Macmillan,Alec Douglas-Home andEdward Heath are not featured.Tony Blair originally did not feature in the play, but was added when the play transferred to Broadway, replacingJames Callaghan, who was excluded from subsequent productions. Advice regarding the political and historical content of the weekly audiences was provided by ProfessorVernon Bogdanor (Emeritus Professor of Government atOxford University), the former tutor ofDavid Cameron, Prime Minister from 2010 until 2016.^[3] The play takes place in theQueen's audience room atBuckingham Palace.^[4]

The Audience is written by British playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan.^[5] Its premiere production opened in the West End at theGielgud Theatre on 15 February 2013, with its press night on 5 March.^[6] The play featuredHelen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II; the actress had played the same role in the 2006 filmThe Queen, which was also written by Morgan.^[7] The play was directed byStephen Daldry,^[8] with costume design byBob Crowley,^[9] lighting design byRick Fisher, sound byPaul Arditti, music byPaul Englishby and video design by Ian William Galloway.^[10] A typical West End performance ran two hours and 30 minutes, including oneinterval.^[11]

Following the death of formerprime ministerMargaret Thatcher, who is featured during the play's run, Morgan made a speech to the audience to mark her death.^[12] Subsequently, a reference to the late prime minister's death and the Queen's attendance at her funeral was added as a part of the Queen's dialogue with David Cameron. The production was broadcast live to cinemas as part ofNational Theatre Live on 13 June 2013.^[13] The initial broadcast broke the record for most people watching a production live since the scheme began, with nearly 80,000 people watching in the UK and 30,000 people in North America.^[14] Further encore screenings were later broadcast.^[15]

The play began a limitedBroadway engagement from 8 March to 28 June 2015, at theGerald Schoenfeld Theatre, with previews from 14 February 2015.^[16] Helen Mirren reprised her role of Queen Elizabeth II in this production,^[17] alongside fellow original cast membersGeoffrey Beevers,Michael Elwyn,Richard McCabe andRufus Wright.^[18]

A West End revival began at theApollo Theatre, opening on 5 May 2015, following previews from 21 April 2015,^[19] withDameKristin Scott Thomas as Queen Elizabeth II.^[20] For the 2015 production, the role of James Callaghan was removed to allow them to feature former prime ministerTony Blair, and the script was updated pending a general election.^[21] Following theelection on 7 May 2015, the scene featuringDavid Cameron meeting the Queen was updated to show Cameron had won a second term and showed the Queen asking him to form a government.^[22][23]The audience between Cameron and the Queen was changed several times over the 15-week run in the West End to keep up to date with current political events. After the general election results, references were made toNicola Sturgeon and the success of theScottish National Party winning seats from theLabour Party. Other current events references made during the audience scene between the Queen and Cameron included thecorruption scandal at FIFA and the Greek bailout debate known as "Grexit". During the last week of the run, a reference was made to newspaper articles displaying the Queen apparently making a Nazi salute in her youth and to the birthday ofPrince George.

In May 2017, the play received its Russian premiere inMoscow and starredInna Churikova as the Queen, along withMikhail Gorevoy as Winston Churchill and Galina Tunina as Margaret Thatcher.^[24]

Fiona Reid assumed the role of the Queen in the 2017Mirvish Productions mounting of the play atToronto'sRoyal Alexandra Theatre.^[25] The Toronto cast included Paul Essiembre as Eden, Kate Hennig as Thatcher, Benedict Campbell as Brown, Kevin Klassen as Blair andBen Carlson as Cameron.^[25]

The 'Traviata' model handbag by British designerLauner London received a surge in popularity and was subsequently re-issued by the brand following the use of one as a prop inThe Audience both in the West End and on Broadway. It is the style often used by Queen Elizabeth II.^[26][27]

Specific episodes of theNetflix seriesThe Crown, created by Peter Morgan, acknowledge inspiration fromThe Audience, produced by Playful productions LLP, Robert Fox LTD and Andy Harries. The play is cited in the credits of the first, fifth and eighth episodes ofseason 1, the third and eighth episodes ofseason 2, the second and ninth episode ofseason 3, and the second, fifth and tenth episode ofseason 4.

Notes

• Robert Hardy withdrew from the role of Churchill before press night in the original West End production for health reasons.^[10][28]

• ​The Audience​ at theInternet Broadway Database

• English plays
• 2013 plays
• Cultural depictions of Elizabeth II
• Cultural depictions of Winston Churchill
• Cultural depictions of Harold Wilson
• Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher
• Cultural depictions of John Major
• Cultural depictions of Tony Blair
• Cultural depictions of Gordon Brown
• Cultural depictions of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
• Biographical plays about British royalty
• West End plays
• Broadway plays
• Plays set in London
• Plays set in the 1950s
• Plays set in the 1960s
• Plays set in the 1970s
• Plays set in the 1980s
• Plays set in the 1990s
• Plays set in the 21st century
• Tony Award–winning plays
• Cultural depictions of Anthony Eden
• Plays about queens

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2024