I must confess to being greatly disappointed by this. It's stodgy, placid, and not a little dull. The writing is hokey and musty, and the structure arbitrary and haphazard. The Queen meets with various prime ministers throughout her reign in no chronological order, and seemingly, in no order at all. The conversations are far from scintillating. The prime ministers are written in stock, cartoonish fashion. There are also flashbacks in which the Queen interacts with her younger self. These are better, but all too brief. A plain biographical drama about the Queen would have better, for here she just appears as a patient soul forced to listen to the prattling of her various prime ministers. She seems every bit as bored by them as we are.
Helen Mirren is good, but the play is not.
Running time: 2 1/2 hours.
Updated On: 2/15/15 at 08:02 AM