Helen Mirren Dazzles as Elizabeth I

Among English history buffs, there are those who love Elizabeth I and those who loathe her. Some are fascinated by the Virgin Queen’s personal life, others are appalled by her role in the death of Mary Queen of Scots, and others revel in her calculating genius in European diplomacy. She was, simply, a complex and complicated human being. Helen Mirren’s portrayal of her in HBO’s new miniseries “Elizabeth I” captures all of this and more.

Dame Helen has been handed a script that every actor or actress prays for, one that allows infinite subtlety while creating extreme emotion. Playwright Nigel Williams gets full marks. Dame Helen told the press that Elizabeth I was “an incredibly passionate woman, a woman who could be so angry that she literally fainted with anger, and at the same time could laugh so hard, especially at vulgar comedy, that she fell off her chair. ... She out-Cleo’d Cleopatra.” And the script captures that.

At the same time, what would she be without Jeremy Irons as Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester? Acting is, at its heart, reacting. Thus, truly great performances are rarely achieved without a proper foil, a fellow Thespian capable of holding up the other end of the scene. He is helped along by the nature of his character, Elizabeth’s lover who cannot, for reasons of state, be open about their feelings. Repressed emotion films so very well.

Directors of period pieces, of course, fuss a lot about sets and costumes, and this work is no different. A Lithuanian gymnasium of Soviet vintage turned into Whitehall with no small effort. The clothing, of a more foppish time, is spot on thanks to designer Mike O’Neill, and Elizabeth’s gowns toward the end of her life did border on the obscene. Dame Helen said, “The older she got, the more extreme they got and the lower cut.”

This role has been played by such diverse stars as Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett. However, none of them had the script, the supporting cast nor the budget to really create something so timeless. “The Sopranos” on Sunday wasn’t even the best thing on HBO this week-end, and that’s saying something. The second part airs tonight.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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