5 – 14 June
World première production of Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment opens in Bath prior to UK tour, starring Anne Reid, Caroline Quentin, James Dreyfus and James Wilby.
This new play explores the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and her Dresser and how the pair created the public image of the world’s longest reigning monarch. After opening at the Theatre Royal Bath, By Royal Appointment will tour to Cheltenham, Leeds, Malvern, Southampton and Guildford.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for her discretion. She never said anything in public that could ruffle the lightest of feathers. But she had one way of expressing what she really thought – through her wardrobe.
By Royal Appointment is a funny, poignant and celebratory new play about the kind of power that only a Queen can wield – she charms the world through coats and admonishes her family through a carefully chosen hat. But the Queen herself is uninterested in fashion, her look is managed by her Designer, her Milliner and most powerful of all, her Dresser who was a working-class girl who goes from advising the Queen on the colour of her lipsticks to the real power behind the throne. But the Dresser, like all royal favourites is living on borrowed time.
Starring national treasure Anne Reid as The Queen, doyen of stage and screen Caroline Quentin as The Dresser, Olivier Award-winning James Dreyfus as The Milliner and Merchant Ivory and Poldark legend James Wilby as The Designer, By Royal Appointment is a behind the scenes peek into the world of our most popular monarch and the image she presented to the world.
By Royal Appointment is Daisy Goodwin’s debut play. For television, her writing credits include the ITV historical drama series Victoria. Her novels include The Last Duchess, The Fortune Hunter, The American Heiress, Victoria and Diva, and she has curated eight poetry anthologies. Also, as a producer, her many credits include Grand Designs and Escape to the Country.
Anne Reid, who plays The Queen, is acclaimed for her many theatre, television and film performances, including her BAFTA Award-nominated role as Celia in Last Tango in Halifax from 2012 to 2020. First seen on television in the 1950s, with credits including Hancock’s Half Hour and The Adventures of Robin Hood, she has starred in countless series every decade since with roles including Ann Moore-Martin in The Sixth Commandment, Jean in Dinnerladies, Lucy Mottershead in Our Zoo, Mrs Thackeray in Upstairs Downstairs, Vera Small in Ladies of Letters, Brenda in Life Begins, and Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street. She won the London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year for her role in the 2003 film The Mother alongside Daniel Craig. Her stage work includes Hedda Gabler at London’s Old Vic with Sheridan Smith, Into the Woods at the Royal Opera House, and West End productions of A Woman of No Importance, The Epitaph of George Dillon and The York Realist, as well as her own highly successful cabaret show. She first performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in a series of plays as part of the London Resident Company between July and October 1955, followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1987, Wild Oats in 1995, A Family Affair in 2000 and Fracked! in 2017. Anne Reid was awarded a CBE in the 2025 New Years Honours.
Caroline Quentin, who plays The Dresser, has twice won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress and a Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. Her recent stage credits include Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre, and Mrs Warren’s Profession at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2022 and on tour. Her television roles in numerous series include Wes in The Lazarus Project, Dorothy in Men Behaving Badly, Mrs Bumble in Dickensian, Maggie in Life Begins, Jan in Big Bad World, DCI Janine Lewis in Blue Murder, Maddy Riley in Life of Riley, Kate in Kiss Me Kate, Maddy in Jonathan Creek and Deirdre in Stephen Poliakoff’s Dancing on the Edge. She has also presented series including BBC2’s The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes, ITV’s Cornwall with Caroline Quentin and was a contestant in the 2020 season of Strictly Come Dancing. Her stage credits include productions at the RSC, National Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and in the West End. At Bath’s Theatre Royal, she has also previously starred in Relative Values in 2013 and The London Cuckolds in 1998.
James Dreyfus plays The Milliner. His many stage credits include The Master Builder at London’s Old Vic; West End productions of The Producers, Harvey, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Cabaret, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, EuroVision and Donkey’s Years; and multiple productions at Birmingham Rep. James won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Lady in the Dark at the National Theatre in 1998. On television, he has played Lord Gormon Massey in House of The Dragon, Reverend Roger Jones in Mount Pleasant, Tom Farell in Gimme Gimme Gimme, Oscar in Bette, Constable Kevin Goody in The Thin Blue Line and guest roles in numerous prime time series. His film credits include Colour Me Kubrick, Churchill: The Hollywood Years, Agent Cody Banks, Being Considered, Notting Hill and Boyfriends. James has performed at the Theatre Royal Bath previously in The Seagull in 1995.
James Wilby, who plays The Designer, was last seen at the Theatre Royal Bath in Gaslight in 2019. His numerous television roles include Lord Falmouth in Poldark, Sir Peter Bailey in The Marlow Murder Club, Senator James Door in Island at War, Sir Piers Gifford in Victoria, Bruce Ismay in Titanic and Sir Clifford Chatterley in Lady Chatterley. James starred in the title role in the Merchant Ivory film Maurice, and his many screen credits also include Howard’s End, A Handful of Dust, Gosford Park, De-Lovely, Tom’s Midnight Garden and The Duke. His stage credits include A Patriot for Me for the RSC; The Second Mrs Tanqueray at Rose Theatre Kingston; The Common Pursuit and Another Country in the West End; Less Than Kind on UK tour; Don Juan at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre; Dead Sheep at London’s Park Theatre; The Tempest, Salonika and Jane Eyre at Chichester Festival Theatre, and As You Like It at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
Director Dominic Dromgoole was Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe from 2006 to 2016. In 2012, he directed the Globe to Globe Festival, which hosted companies from 37 different countries. He launched a new theatre company, Classic Spring, which produced a year-long celebration of Oscar Wilde in 2017-2018, directing the first play in the season, A Woman of No Importance, in West End. Amongst other projects, he created a UK-wide touring operation and toured internationally, culminating in a two-year tour of Hamlet which travelled to every country in the world. He was previously Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre – during his tenure between 1990 to 1996 he nurtured upcoming talents by premiering 65 new plays. He then moved to the Oxford Stage Company, which he ran from 1999 to 2005. He launched a new film company, Open Palm Films, and made his first feature, Making Noise Quietly, an adaptation of Robert Holman’s play of the same name, in 2016. He is the author of several books including the recently published Astonish Me! First Nights That Changed the World.
By Royal Appointment appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday 5th to Saturday 14th June. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at theatreroyal.org.uk
This listing appears on our front page until 11:55pm on Saturday June 14th, 2025
