National Theatre Live Broadcasts THE AUDIENCE, Starring Helen Mirren, Today

The Audience, which just began performances in the West End starring Helen Mirren, will be filmed and broadcast live from the Gielgud Theatre for National Theatre Live today, June 13, 2013. The production has already brought in nearly £4 million in ticket sales before its opening on March 5. The play is running through June 15.

Joining Helen Mirren as The Queen in the world premiere of The Audience are Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Robert Hardy as Winston Churchill, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. The Equerry is Geoffrey Beevers and the role of Young Elizabeth will be played by Bebe Cave, Maya Gerber and Nell Williams.

Designs are by Bob Crowley with lighting by Rick Fisher, sound by Paul Arditti, music by Paul Englishby and video by Ian William Galloway.

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace - a meeting like no other in British public life - it is private. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses.

The Audience breaks this contract of silence and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional - sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can't help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases.

From young mother to grandmother these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister.

The Audience is produced in the West End by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Robert Fox and Andy Harries. For tickets, visit: theaudienceplay.com.

Photo Credit: Johan Persson