Queen of the stage The

With Helen Mirren reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth II, has been getting rave reviews ahead of its Dubai screening

There’s something about Dame Helen Mirren. Regal, but with the vocabulary of an annoyed trucker, fêted for her looks, a Hollywood star, but seemingly unbothered by fame, even when being chased down a beach by paparazzi.

Perhaps it’s that attitude, and seeming immunity to the trials of a life lived under the spotlight, that make her so believable in her most celebrated role – that of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. But having won an Oscar and a Bafta for her portrayal of the reigning monarch in the 2006 movie The Queen, her return to the role in stage play The Audience, also written by Peter Morgan, was close to never happening.

“When Peter sent it to me I sent him back a two-word email that just said, ‘you…’,” she says. “That was my first and only response. I really didn’t want to go to my grave being the actress who played the Queen.”

Reluctantly agreeing to a readthrough, Mirren, 69, says the deal was sealed by the involvement of “some of the best, most incredible, adroit people working in the theatre in Britain today. I looked at them and thought, ‘Oh, don’t be such an idiot, you can’t walk away from this’”.

The resulting play, which sold out in both London and Broadway, will be screened this month at Dubai’s Courtyard Playhouse as part of its National Theatre Live programme. Mirren recently picked up the Best Actress gong at the Tony Awards in New York for her performance and remarked, “Your Majesty, you did it again.” The Queen, it seems, is not the only one. August 28 and 29

The Courtyard Playhouse, Al Quoz, Street 4b, Dubai, 8pm, Dhs100. Tel: (055) 9673927. Taxi: Next to Lime Tree Café. courtyardplayhouse.com