Helen Mirren, Dressed as the Queen, Tells Street Drummers to Fuck Off
A Saturday evening performance of Peter Morgan's The Audience at the Gielgud Theater was rudely interrupted by the loud banging noises made by street drummers marching to promote London’s As One In the Park gay music festival.
Naturally, Dame Helen Mirren, who is starring in the play as Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, wasn't having it.
During intermission Dame Helen "stormed" out of theater in full regalia and ordered the drummers to cease their infernal racket at once.
"I’m afraid there were a few ‘thespian’ words used," Dame Helen later told the Daily Telegraph.
According to band organizer Joe O'Lear, the "stern royal ticking off" went something like this: "Shut the fuck up, people have paid fucking a hundred pounds for their theater tickets."
O'Leary says the talking-to was peppered with some 20 f-words in all.
"I kept saying, 'we didn't realize' and she was like, 'just shut the fuck up,'" O'Leary told The Daily Mirror.
In her defense, Mirren says the drumming got so loud she was unable to hear her fellow cast members, and the audience couldn't hear anything.
"I felt rotten but on the other hand they were destroying our performance so something had to be done," she said.
"Not much shocks you on the gay scene," said parade organizer Mark McKenzie. "But seeing Helen Mirren dressed as the Queen cussing and swearing and making you stop your parade – that’s a new one."
