East Central University will screen the award-winning play “The Audience” at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26, in the Raymond J. Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center.
Helen Mirren “dazzles” (Metro) as Queen Elizabeth II in this critically-acclaimed production. On Sunday, Mirren will be celebrating her 70th birthday. In honor of this occasion, ECU SCREENS will serve free birthday cake to the audience and offer free admission to anyone born on July 26.
“The Audience” recently won the 2015 Tony Awards® for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play (Helen Mirren) and the Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role (Richard McCabe), and was nominated for Best Costume Design (Bob Crowley). Mirren also won an Olivier Award for this performance and an Academy Award for her portrayal of Her Majesty in the 2006 film “The Queen.”
ECU SCREENS is collaborating with Sigma Tau Delta and The Honors Student Association to show the “funny and truthful” (The Times) recorded-live production of “The Audience” performed in London’s West End. Open to the public, the screening is $5 for students and $10 for members of the community.
For 60 years, Queen Elizabeth II has met with each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. No one knows what they discuss, not even their spouses.
From the old warrior Winston Churchill, to the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, from Tony Blair right up to today’s meetings with the current incumbent David Cameron, the Queen advises her Prime Ministers on all matters both public and personal. Through these private audiences, we see glimpses of the woman behind the crown and witness the moments that shaped a monarch.
This showing is the third in a series of NT Live productions presented by ECU SCREENS this summer. NT Live is the National Theatre's groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world. To learn more about ECU SCREENS and the season schedule, visit www.ecuscreens.blogspot.com or follow us at https://www.facebook.com/ECU.SCREENS. For more information about the Royal National Theatre in London and the NT Live screenings, visit https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/. Dr. Steve Benton, co-director of ECU SCREENS, may be contacted at (580) 559-5448 or sbenton@ecok.edu.
-ECU-