Dame Helen plays Queen again – this time on stage

DAME Helen Mirren is to reprise her Oscar-winning role as the Queen in a new play about the monarch’s relationship with British prime ministers through the years.

The actress won an Academy Award in 2007 for her performance in The Queen, a drama about the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana.

The Audience has been written by Peter Morgan, who also scripted The Queen and Frost/Nixon. The play imagines the private meetings between the Queen and the different prime ministers of her 60-year reign, from Winston Churchill onwards.

“From Churchill to Cameron, each prime minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional – sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive,” reads a press release for the play.

It will be directed by Stephen Daldry, whose previous work includes Billy Elliot, and run at London’s Gielgud Theatre from 15 February to 15 June.

Morgan, who also wrote the screenplay for The Last King of Scotland and The Damned United, won a Golden Globe for writing The Queen.

Dame Helen was nominated for another Oscar in 2010, for her role as Tolstoy’s wife in The Last Station, and has been tipped to be in the running next year for her part in the forthcoming Hitchcock.