The Audience

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.

Peter Morgan is a writer for stage and screen. As well as receiving Oscar and BAFTA Award nominations for his screenplay for Stephen Frears' The Queen, Morgan won a host of international awards including Golden Globe, British Independent Film and Evening Standard British Film Awards. The award-winning and Tony-nominated play Frost/Nixon received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic before being adapted into a multi- Academy Award-nominated film of the same name. The film garnered five Oscar nominations, including Best Screenplay. Morgan's many other film credits include the award-winning The Last King of Scotland, The Damned United and Rush. His extensive television credits include The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, the critically acclaimed The Deal - the first part of Morgan's 'Tony Blair Trilogy' (BAFTA Award for Best Drama) - The Special Relationship and Longford. In 2013, Peter wrote the award-winning West End play The Audience, starring Helen Mirren. He is the creator and showrunner of The Crown, which debuted on Netflix in 2016. The series has won numerous awards, including two Golden Globes for Best Television Series - Drama and many Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. The sixth, and final, season is scheduled to air in 2023.