THE AUDIENCE to be Broadcast at Ridgefield Playhouse, 7/20

The power of live HD broadcasts will allow the audience at The Ridgefield Playhouse to experience the best of British theatre from Britain's National Theatre in London onSaturday, July 20, at 6:30 p.m. when renowned actress Helen Mirren stars in the play The Queen. The Audience reunites writer Peter Morgan and Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren following their collaboration on the critically acclaimed movie sensation The Queen. The NTL in HD series brings the best of British theatre live to cinemas worldwide. Media sponsor is WSHU. This event is supported by Starbucks Coffee.

Helen Mirren reprises her Academy Award winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in the highly-anticipated West End production of The Audience, a new play by Peter Morgan, broadcast live from London's Gielgud Theatre. 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, as 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 imagining 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 is directed by Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) and presented in the West End by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Robert Fox and Andy Harries.

For tickets ($25 adults, $20 seniors & $15 students by calling the box office), call the box office at (203) 438-5795, or order online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.

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