During her long reign, Queen Elizabeth II has met each of her successive 12 Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace to discuss Government matters – a meeting like no other in British public life.

These meetings are held in an audience room in her personal apartments and are entirely private. Though the Queen remains politically neutral on all matters, she’s able to ‘advise and warn’ her PMs when necessary. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses.

But this brilliant play, entitled The Audience, breaks the contract of silence and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between 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.

It was written by the British playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan, best known for his hugely popular television series, The Crown, and now you can be a fly on the wall and eavesdrop on eight of the PMs.

The role of the Queen was originally played by Helen Mirren when the play premiered in the West End in 2013, at the Gielgud Theatre. It was after seeing this, and being so impressed with the ‘superb and fascinating dialogue’, that Linda Dyne knew she wanted to direct the play herself.

Growing up, she had ballet and singing lessons, then at 22 auditioned and got a part in the BBC Play for Today, The Mill on the Floss. “I was a member of Equity within three weeks,” she says. “How lucky was that? I then worked non-stop for the next 20 years but after having my two children I made a commitment not to work away for long periods, so no long runs. I made television commercials and did voice-overs, which actually paid much more!”

Linda continues: “When I was 32 I performed in a play called The Gambler with Dame Edith Evans and Sir Michael Redgrave. It was a painful production because the Director had no handle on it, mainly because he was completely over-awed. I said to my husband ‘I could do as well as that’ and he answered ‘Why don’t you?’  So I decided to try.”

Linda reckons that she’s directed and choreographed more than a hundred musicals since then, which includes productions for many societies within a 30-minute drive of home.

She’s been involved at the Barn for about seven years, her first play being Blue Stockings followed by productions including Pygmalion and The Lion in Winter. But she says The Audience is one of the most challenging she’s ever done.

When you know that the Queen has to age on stage from 25 years old to 86, you realise why.

The young Queen Elizabeth, from 11 years to 23, is played by Tammy Wall, while Suzie Major is reprising her role as the monarch that she portrayed in Handbagged at the Barn in 2017.

Linda adds: “I’m so lucky that the Barn allows me to experiment, and everyone is so supportive. I have a great cast who are getting the essence of their characters by their speech and way they present themselves. And I’m also happy to have a super crew who work with me. I’m enjoying the challenge!”

The actors playing the Prime Ministers are: Simon Parr – John Major; Mel Powell – Winston Churchill; Peter Sayers – Harold Wilson; David Thompson – Gordon Brown; Ian Major – Anthony Eden; Amanda Sayers – Margaret Thatcher; and Alistair Woodgate – David Cameron. Keith Thompson plays the Queen’s Equerry and Stephanie Cotter is Bobo, her childhood nanny.

The Audience
12th to 20th November 2021 at 8pm
Matinee on 20th November at 2.30pm

If you’d prefer to attend a performance with a more socially distanced audience, we will be selling our matinee and Monday performances to a maximum of half capacity. At these performances we’ll ensure households are seated separately in the auditorium.