The Audience

by Peter Morgan

The Audience by Peter Morgan imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the prime ministers of Downing Street and their Queen. From Winston Churchill to David Cameron, their private conversations are sometimes intimate and sometimes explosive.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. It 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.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 by Peter Morgan premiered at the Gielgud Theatre, London, in March 2013.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Historical, Theatre, British Literature, Politics, Historical Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2013

About the author

Peter Julian Robin Morgan, CBE is a British film writer and playwright. Morgan is best known for writing the historical films and plays The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United, and Rush. He is the creator of Netflix's drama series The Crown.

Reviews

[Ammar · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the fans of The Crown

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

To check out my reviews: https://dancinginth3dark.wordpress.co...

BookTubeAThon 2017 Challenge #3: Finish a book in one day.

When I heard the news that Helen Mirren would be replaying the role of Queen Elizabeth II for this magnificent play called The Audience, I about lost my sh@%t when I realized that I would never get to see this magnificent performance on the big stage because I do not live in London or NYC. Luckily I was able to procure this fascinating play into my life and for months it remained untouched on my bookshelf until now. Every summer I get excited for the infamous BookTubeAThon which is a week-long marathon where you try to accomplish several reading challenges while basking in the fun of reading. I figured for this challenge I needed a book that was short and sweet and this fit the challenge. It helps that I've been marathoning the BBC version of House of Cards which surprisingly taught me how Parliament works and the role of Prime Minister.

Queen Elizabeth has been the longest reigning monarch in UK history and holds the record for having the most Prime Ministers during her reign (13 PMs as of 2017) which is shocking considering she has experienced all the ups and downs of the last half of the 20th century. So much has changed since she ascended the throne in 1952 and yet one tradition that remains the same is her weekly meetings with the Prime Minister. There is no written law in the constitution that enforces these two separate heads of government to meet and yet this tradition is hold sacred in British culture. These meetings all started during World War II under the reign of her father, King George VI with Winston Churchill and after the war was over it became a weekly routine that neither party wanted to stop.

Once her father passed away, Churchill became Elizabeth's first Prime Minister who essentially taught her the rules of what these meetings dictate and as time passes we see how it has adapted and taken form under each new Prime Minister. These meetings are held privately without any written record of what has taken place which is understandable but imagine if we the public had the opportunity to know what exactly went behind closed doors between these two individuals and that is where the magic of Peter Morgan comes in.

If you do not know who is Peter Morgan, he is the creator of Netflix's The Crown and wrote the screenplay for The Queen so it comes as no surprise that Peter Morgan has the gifted insight of tapping into the minds of the Royal Family. I believe he is perfect for writing this play because he pays major respect to both the Queen and the Prime Minister yet shedding light to the reality of what was taking place during each Prime Minister time in office. What I enjoyed the most about this play was Peter Morgan didn't follow the dialogue in a linear format so there is a bit of suspense as to what particular Prime Minister is going to show up on stage.

At the end of the day the Queen will always guarantee her support for the Prime Minister and that is a difficult task to uphold because naturally we tend to have preferences when it comes to our leaders and over the course of decades there has been leaks about who were her favorites and which one she despised so Peter Morgan used that information to his advantage and while the conversations held in this play is fictional, Morgan has the natural gift of making it sound believable and it feels as though you the audience are these private meetings with the Queen.

I love anything that has deals with Royalty so naturally I am biased and I need to warn anyone who wants to read this play, if you have no clue about British history, Parliament, and the Prime Minister then I suggest you either pick something else to read or crack open a book and learn the gist of British culture because otherwise it will leave you completely confused. Remember this is a play not a novel so the author does not have time to supply enough information about the importance of each and every meeting that takes place in this story and the controversy that naturally surrounds the Prime Minister. If you have no qualms about it then I believe you will encounter a refreshing and beautiful take on Queen Elizabeth II and her relationship to the Prime Minister.

[SophieMG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and especially for the fans of the netflix series The Crown.

[James Neophytou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Imagined or not, you believe these conversations between HMQ and the various PMs she had met over the years. Peter Morgan is a top author. His Frost/Nixon, The Deal, The Damned United - all brilliant films. Only matter of time before The Audience hits the screens.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it reads well, I am sure this was enhanced immensely by Dame Helen's performance of it. Since the minutiae of British Parliamentary history is not generally as known here as in the UK, some of it proved a mite dull.

[Aaron Thiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did a cheeky little reread of this on account of the last season of The Crown being out. I think they both set out to achieve different things, but I love this for how concise it is and also for taking advantage of suspension of disbelief that you can ask for with theatre

[Canavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭½

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Morgan has made a career of dramatizing the life of Queen Elizabeth II, with the film The Queen in 2006, the Netflix series The Crown in the late 2010s, and the stage play The Audience in between them in the early 2010s. I tend to find the family drama stuff on The Crown more compelling than the political drama, but perhaps Morgan would disagree. Because The Audience is all politics and no family, as it explores Elizabeth’s relationships with 8 different Prime Ministers over a 60-year period.

That’s a lot of ground to cover, and many scenes feature clunky Wikipedia-like bits of dialogue to establish the year and the characters. Throughout, the Queen serves as a stable figurehead while Prime Ministers of all stripes come and go; yet we come to understand that, deep down, despite their differences of politics and class and gender and age, the PMs have more in common than they know. For instance, the Queen’s conversation with Tony Blair on the eve of the Iraq War echoes her conversation with Anthony Eden on the eve of the Suez Crisis. But I wish more had been done with this theme, especially considering that theater can tell stories in non-naturalistic and non-chronological ways; that the play were more of a phantasmagoria swirling together 60 years of Prime Ministers, as opposed to a staid succession of vignettes.

True, the vignettes here are arranged for dramatic effect, not according to strict chronology. The Act II climax features the long-awaited appearance of Margaret Thatcher—the only female prime minister shown here, since this play premiered before Theresa May took office. It’s a powerful choice, as Thatcher is “a woman of almost equal iconic power to the Queen, and of near-identical age” (per the stage directions). But the overall emotional through-line is the Queen’s relationship with Harold Wilson, the only PM who gets three different scenes and a real arc. This means that the heart of the play is the irony that this tradition-bound monarch felt more genuine fondness for the working-class, left-wing Wilson than for some PMs who had more conservative politics and upper-class backgrounds.

Do I believe it? I don’t know; I’m an American who had barely even heard of Wilson before watching The Crown and reading this play. And I think theatergoers (who tend to be liberal) want to believe that the Queen could befriend a Labour PM and try to persuade Thatcher to impose sanctions against apartheid South Africa. But hasn’t the royal family shown themselves to be more conservative than that on many other occasions? And how can this salt-of-the-earth queen be the same woman who invokes the divine right of kings in order to provide a dazzling Act One finale? Certainly this play’s Elizabeth is a tour-de-force role for an actress, but I don’t know if the script actually reflects her personality or her contradictions.

[Benjamin Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Audience - Peter Morgan (DPS, 2015).
2 Sept. 2021
9M, 4F (Doubling possible).
Primary location: Private Audience Room, Buckingham Palace. A few other locations, as needed.

What happens between the Queem, Elizabeth II and the person running the government of Britain in their weekly meeting?

One of the lines in this play that sticks out to me is: "The same people, the same ideas come round again and again. Wearing a different coloured tie." (page 24). This is in my mind because, right now, President Biden is withdrawing American troops from Afganistan. It seems like he is making the same mistakes made during the withdrawal from Vietnam.

This play was connecting the British attack on Iraq under Blair to the British-backed Israeli attack on Egypt in 1956 under Anthony Eden. Similar justifications to support similar means to the same ends.

Plays like this and King Charles III make me wonder what would the world be like if someone else had been the monarch of Britain for the last 60 years? Would the monarchy still exist? Will it continue for much longer after she dies? How important is the monarchy? From a governmental standpoint, it doesn't need to exist; but, spiritually, what would happen if it was abolished? Would the world stop spinning? No. Would the currents stop? No. Would Britain have less "shine?" Possibly. That is my concern.

Scenically, this show could be simple or lavish. I might lean more toward selectively lavish. Certainly carpets/rugs, floor to ceiling windows and curtains, and various pieces of furniture and decor. Beyond that, I'm not sure what I would do.

Lighting would be pretty intense as some scenes change instantly and that type of shift is best served with strong lighting. Most of the lighting would be pretty conventional; but, I could see a use for projections (headlines, photos on the curtains/walls) for scenes with discussions of specific events.

Costumes could be entertaining as you have men's fashion from the 1950s to now, as well as some of the queen's looks from that same time span, and before.

This is a play I would like to do, possibly alongside Handbagged. I'll say more once I read that play.

[Simon Donoghue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating challenge for a director and actor. Morgan, who went on to design and write for The Crown, created this play whilst the late Queen was still alive. It's basically Elizabeth II and most of her Prime Ministers at their weekly personal meeting, or audience. Unlike the Netflix series, Morgan eliminates the royal family as characters. Instead he largely focuses on politics and personality interaction. The story is told in non-linear fashion, which makes for some lightning costume and wig changes for the title role, although Morgan does write an actual child as playing the young Princess. There are also Corgis, which as far as I am concerned lifts The Audience to Shakespearean levels.
The audience is prepared for the Big Scene (i.e. Elizabeth vs. Thatcher), and the play delivers, but the Prime Minister who most garners sympathy is Harold Wilson. He also allows us to see the Queen at her best. In general, the reader --- and presumably the viewer --- comes away with a favorable impression of Elizabeth's innate common sense. It isn't particularly "dramatic" as a whole, but it is always interesting, and some of the Prime Ministers most of us have forgotten (who thinks about John Major these days?) turn out to have fascinating back stories (hint: John Major).

I'd like to direct this play.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating challenge for a director and actor. Morgan, who went on to design and write for The Crown, created this play whilst the late Queen was still alive. It's basically Elizabeth II and most of her Prime Ministers at their weekly personal meeting, or audience. Unlike the Netflix series, Morgan eliminates the royal family as characters. Instead he largely focuses on politics and personality interaction. The story is told in non-linear fashion, which makes for some lightning costume and wig changes for the title role, although Morgan does write an actual child as playing the young Princess. There are also Corgis, which as far as I am concerned lifts The Audience to Shakespearean levels.
The audience is prepared for the Big Scene (i.e. Elizabeth vs. Thatcher), and the play delivers, but the Prime Minister who most garners sympathy is Harold Wilson. He also allows us to see the Queen at her best. In general, the reader --- and presumably the viewer --- comes away with a favorable impression of Elizabeth's innate common sense. It isn't particularly "dramatic" as a whole, but it is always interesting, and some of the Prime Ministers most of us have forgotten (who thinks about John Major these days?) turn out to have fascinating back stories (hint: John Major).

I'd like to direct this play.

[Jana P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuto divadelní hru jsem si nesmírně užila. Setkáváme se tu s královnou Alžbetou v jejích různých životních etapách a ve vztahu k premiérům / premiérce, s nimiž měla tu čest spoluvládnout. Líbilo se mi, že to české vydání, které jsem měla v ruce, v začátku stručně nahlíží na vztah panovník-premiér a českému čtenáři tak umožňuje aspoň trochu pochopit, jak tyto vztahy na poli britské vrcholné politiky fungují. Vedle toho v tom českém vydání máme i stručné medailonky jednotlivých hlavních aktérů této knihy. Díky tomu tak čtenář pochopí určité souvislosti a narážky pronesené v jednotlivých replikách. Možná ne na 100 %, ale přesto. A mne to prostě bavilo.
Líbilo se mi, jak moc lidsky tady královna působí - vůbec ne odtažitě či "vzdáleně". Prostě lidsky, civilně. Hodně silně se tu projevuje její pracovitost a tvrdost v tom smyslu neustupovat, vytrvat, i když třeba čelí nepříjemnostem.
Jestliže autorovým záměrem bylo zobrazit to, jak se panovník a premiér navzájem potřebují při vedení státu, tak tato hra to ukazuje velmi dobře a já to oceňuji. Myslím, že čtenář žijící mimo Británii a její systém a možná trochu neznalý tohoto systému má z této hry možnost zase nasáknout nové poznatky o tom, jak v některých otázkách politiky Británie funguje. A to je další přínos této hry - zvláště pro nebritské publikum.
A já se jdu podívat na to, jak je na tom Národní divadlo s lístky na tohle představení. Paní Janžurová v roli královny mne fakt zajímá. :-)

[Anjum Choudhury · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I could think throughout reading this play was: Wow, what a challenge for the female lead. Which isn't a bad thing! It's kind of great. I just wonder how aging her would work throughout. But I'm sure there's a way. Other than that, I bet this would have been more interesting to someone who knows more about the royal family and British politics. That's definitely a huge gap for me and I know basically nothing about either. Nevertheless, it was nice to get some fictional insight into the queen, whom we really do see as just a figure, not really a human. Especially now that she's so old. And just the fact that she's been through so many prime ministers is astounding, so it was cool to see her different interactions with them. But ultimately, this play didn't really tickle anything in me, so I'm giving it the good old middle rating.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a play that details the relationships the Queen has with each of her first twelve Prime Ministers from Churchill to Cameron and imagining what might occur in the regular meetings between the mpnarch and prime minister. One of my favourite scenes was towards the end between The Queen and Harold Wilson where he discloses the reason he will soon need to leave the premiership. This scene was very moving and contrasted beautifully with their first scene in the play where they are quite abrupt with each other whilst laying out their stalls of what each is going to contribute to these meetings. The little introductory essay that supports the play really helps you to get a sense of what the playwright was hoping to achieve. I wish I had seen it on stage and I think it would be interesting to see it in other formats.

[Edu Moyano F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Audience es la obra de teatro germen de la serie The Crown. Una serie de dramatizaciones de las audiencias privadas semanales de Isabel II con sus Primeros Ministros (muchas de mis escenas favoritas de la serie son esas reuniones).

Al igual que en la serie, mi Primer Ministro favorito es Harold Wilson, y parece que también del dramaturgo Peter Morgan, ya que es el único político que merece tres escenas en la obra, cuando el resto solo aparecen en una y de escaso interés dramático, sino más bien periodístico. De hecho creo que como obra de teatro hubiera sido mucho más interesante un mano a mano con la evolución de la relación de la reina y su primer Primer Ministro de izquierdas, mostrando las diferencias, coincidencias e incoherencias de ambos (como hacen esas tres escenas, las más interesantes e ingeniosas). No en vano, también fue el primer ministro favorito de Isabel II.

[Charlotte Coen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 ✨✨✨

the form of it - albeit intentionally - was slightly confusing

i think i’d benefit from more political knowledge

this play should have been heresy to write

i liked Gogo
and young Elizabeth
interesting form

nothing to really say about the formal features of the play
there wasn’t many technical things done
all occurred in (essentially) one room with the holiday home also having a scene

erm yeah
fun!

[Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really enjoyable read. Some scenes and moments seemed to have been recycled in Peter Morgan's scripts for The Crown. The most endearing quality of the piece other than the subject of the play itself was the element of the interaction between Elizabeth II and the Young Elizabeth still within her.

[Marjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. I suspect this is an earlier version of the script, compared to the one that was played in New York when I saw it. I think the changes made between the two versions were an improvement, but this is still quite nice.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagines the queen's meeting with several of her Prime Ministers of all political stripes , and passed reflections between her older and younger selves . Wry and sharply observational

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, but I think it probably suffers with comparison to The Crown - in which Morgan has reused much of these conversations. A nice challenge for amateur groups.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Gal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like The Crown's early draft (I'm not joking, it has several dialogues that been featured in the show, word for word.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this reminded me of The Crown

[Emily Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read The Audience in 2019, and recently decided to read the play again after Queen Elizabeth's death earlier this year. Playwright Peter Morgan very much has a fascination with the Queen in this century, have written the screenplay for the 2006 film, The Queen (which also included Dame Helen Mirren in the role of Queen Elizabeth II) and being the creator for the Netflix series of The Crown which premiered a year after the Broadway premiere of this play. Even though The Audience is a play I have yet to see, either live or the pro-shot, it represents the collaboration of the Queen and her Prime Ministers pretty well, and shows how much changes and work Queen Elizabeth experienced during her 70-year reign.

First premiering in 2013 at the West End, then two year later on Broadway, The Audience presents the various possible meetings of Queen Elizabeth and eight of her twelve Prime Ministers from 1952 to 2015. Many of these scenes represent historic events during the Queen's reign and flashbacks of her own childhood after King Edward VII's abdication and her father, King George VI assuming the British throne. Many well-known events are also mentioned that the general public would know well such as Prince Charles and Princess Diana, the Queen's indifference with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the financial issues and controversial press about the Royal Family from the 1980s and 1990s. In the center of this play however, are the audience meetings with Queen Elizabeth and the Prime Ministers and how much trust and collaboration must be needed between the UK Crown and government.

Re-reading the play again, I find it really interesting that Morgan brought many of these scenes (specifically the ones with the Queen and Prime Ministers Churchill, Thatcher and Wilson) from his play to include them in The Crown. Thinking back, it makes sense since these are the most well known government leaders in history and the scenes mention do give a lot of weight and character to the series as they probably do on stage. I wish I have had seen the play to let you know if it is best to see the play first before reading the script and to express the effect of seeing the performance live. However, if you know the history of the British monarchy and have watched The Crown series, I believe one would find The Audience an enjoyable read and a nice inclusion of seeing the Queen's life and work dramatized on stage.

[Phil Rhys Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we have a solidly screwed-together (fictional) take on the weekly chats shared between Queen Elizabeth II and her prime ministers over the years. A non-linear rendering helps to keep it chugging along and the drama is driven pretty much entirely by character – after all, we know the plot already. The best-drawn of these characters is, of course, her maj herself, since we get to see her develop across almost a century from ingénue to influencer. The PMs sometimes wander into "say the lines and get off, dear" territory but as a whole the play is a tantalisingly imagined insight into what goes on behind closed gilt doors.

[Steve Mayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing re-imagination of the private audiences held each week between the Queen and the Prime Minister But it seems contradictory. On the one hand we are told that the Queen's strength is her ordinariness; on the other hand she emerges as an observer of uncommon wisdom. Even at the outset, in her first meeting with Churchill, she seems steadfast and strong-willed. And then, four years later, she shrewdly discovers and analyzes the English disaster at Suez. Entertaining, and an obviously terrific vehicle for Helen Mirren, I found her character hard to believe.

[Kristen Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really thought I was going to be bored-- not so! Reading The Audience made me want to see the play even more. The dialog is packed with power moves between the queen and which ever prime minister she is speaking to, and besides the status relationships, you even get some empathy in there to (for both the queen and the PMs.)! Watching this on stage would be even more riveting, I bet. It also brings up many good questions such as, how can/why should a modern monarchy survive?

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first experience reading a play. I'm not sure what the usual length of plays are, but this one was rather short. I read it in one day (basically one sitting). I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I am biased fan of Peter Morgan and the royal family. Very interesting imagined private audiences with the Queen and her Prime Ministers. Not all are included and there is only one or two scenes with each of them. Very human aspects of both the politicians and the Queen are presented.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming away from reading this I felt I like I learnt very little. It was well written but the Queen and Prime Minister felt like the versions of themselves I already had in my head. It never really answers what it means to have this audience, just some short counselling sessions the Queen has with her various Prime Ministers and herself.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon rereading, I'm surprised how much of this is directly used in the Crown.
**********
Great play about the Queen where you see the separate personalities of most Prime Ministers and the ways she may have charmed them (except Blair). Delved into the psychology of the Queen and what her job takes, humanising her as a 24/7 civil servant.