Created with Elizabeth I writer/scholar, Doctor Carole Levin and starring Tammy Meneghini as the titular queen, this show invites you into a private evening audience with Queen Elizabeth I. Near the end of her reign, she reflects upon its major events and the people she was closest to, told through “her own words”, from documented letters, speeches, passages from her own hand, though these are very much augmented by others’ words, including letters from Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador, and multiple speeches from the plays of William Shakespeare.
This makes sense in the context of the creation of the piece, ie to accompany a visiting exhibit of Shakespeare’s First Folio to the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder, though it might lead the casual viewer to assume there is more Elizabeth in a show billed as “in her own words” than is in fact the case. However, Meneghini makes all these words her own through her performance, despite her real accent often peeking through the RP (an interesting choice in-of-itself as it is more Elizabeth II than Elizabeth I), setting the scene with cannily humorous audience interaction, explaining succinctly the context for the uninitiated and building to a satisfactorily emotional conclusion.
Both a view of a monarch through a personal lens and an effective crash-course on Tudor history, Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words effectively humanises the period for both the curious and the fans.
Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words is running at The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall Haldane Theatre until August 17th. Tickets can be found at: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/elizabeth-i-in-her-own-words
Reviewer: Oliver Giggins
Reviewed: 13th August 2024
North West End UK Rating: