The Audience, Urania Theatre (NT Live) Budapest
Oct 15th 2019
Well this review is going to be rather different to many that I write and post – I am not going to be raving about how marvelous it is – the opposite in fact. And this to the extent that Joanna L and I left at the interval!
There were many problems with this show – acting and dramatic structure most significantly. From the opening introduction from a Court functionary setting the scene for the play, there was a cartoonish exaggeration to everything. His performance was absurdly, manneredly camp and this crude approach was reflected in the portrayal of the various Prime Ministers – in the first half John Major, Gordon Brown, Harold Wilson and Winston Churchill. With the slight exception of Gordon Brown all these were shown in broad strokes, both in terms of the physical performances of the actors and the lines that they had to speak. With Gordon brown though (momentarily and not for the whole scene) there was a more real sense of a character and an individual that was markedly lacking from all the others.
The other major problem was the dramatic structure – or rather, lack of it. At the interval we agreed that there was no sense of the drama (such as it was) actually going anywhere. It came across very much almost as a series of sketches – and while sketches using public figures can be very sharp and revealing, here this was not the case. Here it seemed as if the author was unsure as to whether he was trying to interestingly show historical characters or just wanted to make fun of them and exaggerate them. Spitting Image did this sort of thing much better – not least as it had the courage of its convictions and went full out for comic savagery. This was just…limp. In addition, the order that the characters appeared seem to have no rhyme or reason – in the final episode of the first part there was a reference by HM back to a previous individual and comments, but this was the only time this happened – and even then it did not seem particularly dramatically effective.
Helen Mirren was…alright. But I did not have the sense of her having ‘got’ the character (if that is ever possible). I recall her being much better in The Queen where the performance was more subdued and so more powerful – and of course there, there was a real and tremendously dramatic situation that would allow an actor to really sink their teeth into the role. And even she I felt at times fell into the trap of a degree of exaggeration – but that may well be the fault of the script. With these weekly Prime Minister royal meetings there was nothing in the way of a dramatic situation or scenario tat would allow emotional involvement and development – and as the scenes were relatively short there was no chance or time to develop anything interesting re the relationships between the two characters – but then the scenario chosen does not lend itself at all to that or any personal involvement. The meetings, in a way, while strictly private are also necessarily formal and, dare one say, somewhat empty of emotional involvement.
Anyway, interesting to see – but who would have thought that seeing encounters between a sovereign and the extraordinary range of Prime Ministers she has encountered could be so…dull!