{"id":212853,"date":"2025-06-25T10:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T10:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212853\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T10:07:11","slug":"by-royal-appointment-leeds-grand-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212853\/","title":{"rendered":"By Royal Appointment – Leeds Grand Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Daisy Goodman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Dominic Dromgoole<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Royal Appointment is a warm and witty new play written by Daisy Goodman, best known for her work on Victoria for ITV. Her debut stage script is an assured one \u2013 clever, warm, and full of quiet charm. Set immediately after the death of the Queen, as The Dresser is asked to \u2018collab\u2019 with a young curator to bring the Queen\u2019s dresses to life in an immersive experience, we then rewind to the beginning of her own collaboration with the Queen as dresser, personal assistant and even friend. Caroline Quentin said in a recent interview that the producer (Dan Schumann) has an obsession with the Queen and how she was dressed, and this shines through \u2013 the attention to detail with each costume is excellent. Director Dominic Dromgoole takes the audience through a series of vignettes representing each year of the Queen\u2019s life with an iconic dress-hat combination, as the audience learn about the silent statements made through her clothing to her public.<\/p>\n

The play explores legacy, loss, ego (or lack thereof) and the personal sacrifices behind public spectacle.<\/p>\n

At its heart is the relationship between Caroline Quentin as The Dresser, who is effortlessly skilled in her role juggling diplomacy, ambition, and personal sacrifices. She delivers her lines with a perfect mix of authority, sharp-tongued no nonsense and occasional flashes of vulnerability. Anne Reid, astonishingly vibrant at 90, steals scenes as the Queen herself \u2013 brimming with dignity and poise. Watching her perform was a privilege.<\/p>\n

\"Unnamed<\/p>\n

The unexpected comic highlight comes from the delicious bickering between James Dreyfus as the flamboyant Australian Milliner and James Wilby as the exacting, perfectionist Designer. Their exchanges are fast-paced, sharp, and wonderfully petty \u2013 a joy to watch.<\/p>\n

The only uneven note is the character of the Curator (Grainne Dromgoole), whose role took time to become clear and at times the interjections to the audience felt awkwardly performed as a series of factoids. This slightly disrupted the otherwise smooth rhythm of the play, and was at odds with the scenes when all four main characters were on stage together, but some sort of device was needed to move from one year to the next, and this was in general an acceptable way of doing it.<\/p>\n

Still, By Royal Appointment is a delightful piece, filled with heart, humour and insight. Goodman\u2019s script is a standout debut \u2013 sharply observed and full of warmth \u2013 and with such a stellar cast, it\u2019s a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the theatre.<\/p>\n

Runs until 28th June 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Daisy Goodman Director: Dominic Dromgoole By Royal Appointment is a warm and witty new play written by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[84704,748,84705,84706,84707,84708,84709,393,84710,4884,84711,84712,1860,65943,56230,2417,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-212853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-anne-reid","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-by-royal-appointment","11":"tag-caroline-quentin","12":"tag-daisy-goodwin","13":"tag-daniel-schumann","14":"tag-dominic-dromgoole","15":"tag-england","16":"tag-grainne-dromgoole","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-james-dreyfus","19":"tag-james-wilby","20":"tag-leeds","21":"tag-leeds-grand","22":"tag-leeds-grand-theatre","23":"tag-the-queen","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114743452900150124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}