Kristin Scott Thomas will follow in the Olivier Award-winning footsteps of Dame Helen Mirren when she takes on the role of Her Majesty The Queen in a new version of Peter Morgan’s 2013 hit The Audience next year.
Stephen Daldry will return to redirect the production at the Apollo Theatre, where it will play from 21 April (press night 5 May) to 25 July.
Nominated for Best New Play at 2013’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard, The Audience examines one of the most secret meetings in British public life, the weekly discussion that has been held for the last six decades between the Queen and the Prime Minister. The content of such meetings is never disclosed, not even to the pair’s spouses.
From Winston Churchill to David Cameron, the production imagines what might have been said during those private conversations, the admissions given and questions posed by each of the country’s Prime Ministers, and the advice, suggestions and occasional teasing offered by the Queen.
Scott Thomas, who is currently appearing in the title role of Electra at the Old Vic, will take on the role that earned Mirren her first ever Olivier Award. An Olivier Award winner herself, Scott Thomas’ West End stage credits include Old Times, The Seagull and Betrayal, while on screen the actress has appeared in films including Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, The English Patient and Four Weddings And A Funeral.
Featuring designs by Bob Crowley, who was Olivier Award nominated for his work on the show, The Audience was described by The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer as “a pitch-perfect production, with a truly palatial design” when it premiered last year.
The production, for which full casting is yet to be announced, will open in the West End following the play’s New York premiere. The Audience will open on Broadway in February 2015 with Mirren reprising her acclaimed performance.