At Edinburgh Fringe, actor Prunella Scales gives voice to royal vulnerability
LONDON—British actor Prunella Scales had, over the course of 28 years, played Queen Victoria in a stage production based on the former monarch’s prolific diary and letter-writing that toured the world.
Now 92, Scales has vascular dementia. That has not stopped her from making a recording that will be part of a new play entitled “Queen,” one of several shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival that explores anxiety, self-doubt and loneliness.
“Queen” is an adaptation by Julian Machin of the original “An Evening with Queen Victoria,” written by Katrina Hendrey in 1979.
Machin said he never doubted Scales would be able to overcome her illness to record a part that was “deeply ingrained.”
Alongside her recording, Grace Darling and Sara Crowe play the younger and older Victoria, respectively.
Mental health
Director Denise Silvey said the combination of the play’s broad appeal and a small cast that limits costs made it “a no-brainer” to take it to Edinburgh, where it will run at the Assembly.
Although she was a queen, who ruled from 1837 to 1901, Victoria’s diaries lay bare her vulnerability.
Today’s society is more willing than hers was to discuss mental health, one of many preoccupations articulated at the Edinburgh Fringe even before the pandemic aggravated the problem.
“What the Fringe always brings up are some of the discussions that are happening in terms of our daily lives,” said Anthony Alderson, director of the Pleasance Theatre Trust.
The recording made by Scales—who in Britain first found fame as Sybil, wife of Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese in the 1970s television comedy “Fawlty Towers”—adds an extra layer of thoughtfulness.
“It’s incredibly moving hearing Prunella’s voice. She’s got such frailty in her voice and paradoxically, such strength,” said Crowe.
