Help needed please

[Ninnynanny]

Who was the first living member of the Royal Family to be portrayed on stage? Thank you

[jno]

Henry VIII and Charles I both performed in masques staged in their palaces during their reigns.

[Invictas]

I would think that (according to this website)that the first member of the Royal Family to be portrayed on stage is King Henry VI (in Shakespeares play Henry VI part2) see here for more information:~
http://www.shakespear...ydates/playchron.html

[jno]

he wasn't living at the time, though, Invictas

[Invictas]

Sorry jno then I am not reading the question correctly.
Does the OP mean members of the Royal Family NOW living?
or do they mean any member of the Royal Family portrayed whilst they were living?
I think the question is a bit vague.

[Ninnynanny]

Sorry, I took it that it meant the first member of the Royal Family who is still living now.

[mike11111]

I would go for HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother who, as Duchess or York was portrayed on stage in Crown Matrimonial in 1972.

[mike11111]

Princess Alice, not sure if it was the Duchess of Gloucester or the Countess of Athlone, was portrayed in the same play. Both were still alive at the time.

[Ninnynanny]

But surely none of these people are still alive now.

[mike11111]

I think that you are misreading the question. My understanding of it is who was the first to be portrayed whilst that person was still alive.

[mike11111]

In which play did Elizabeth I make that comment?

[jno]

after seeing one of the Henry IVs, perhaps? But it's hard to see the resemblance, Elizabeth having inherited the throne, not seized it. She didn't spend much time in Lithuania, either.

[boxtops]

Is this a quiz, ninnynanny? "Living" to me means "still alive now".

[Ninnynanny]

Yes, it is the last question I have to answer on our local "Telford & District Multiple Sclerosis Quiz." Thank you for all the suggestions so far. but still none the wiser!

[mike11111]

Elizabeth I was not portrayed on stage during her life time. The answer is as I have suggested. See this quote from the attached link.
"Another remarkable thing about Crown Matrimonial, says Routledge, "is that it was, in fact, the very first play to portray (then) living members of the royal family on a live stage.""
http://www.uk-comedy....sCrownMatrimonial.htm

[jno]

that souonds plausible, Steve.

But yes, for a quiz, Crown Matrimonial is probably what they're after; there was a bit of fuss about it at the time, as I recall. But which live royal was the first one it put on stage?

[mike11111]

Elizabeth I may well have made references to Shakespeare's historical plays, but she is not portrayed in any of them apart from Henry VIII as the infant Princess Elizabeth, by which time she was dead.

[mightywease]

I would also go for "Crown Matrimonial" but if the question means alive now then probably the Queen - simply refered to as HMQ- in Alan Bennett's "A Question of Attribution" (or half of "Single Spies")

[scotman]

I don't know anything about the answer but I would say that the question implies the currently alive ones. You can never be sure these days given the poor grammar that abounds.