Judi Dench regular contact with the theatre. Her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household. During these years, Judi Dench was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951, 1954 and 1957. In the third production she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens. Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff
Peter and Alice Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, breaks your heart open."". However, there was some criticism of the play. Henry Hitchings in "The Evening Standard" wrote: "" this is a piece that uses lush language to compensate for its lack of real dynamism"". Despite this, the critics applauded the performance of Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, with one critic saying ""Dame Judi and Mr Whishaw are good, she almost Queen Motherly these days, he so sensitive, so irredeemably moist, that he could do with sponging."" Peter and Alice Peter and Alice is a play by American writer John Logan based on the