Helen Mirren actors to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting”, joining the ranks of legends including Ingrid Bergman‚ Dame Maggie Smith, and Al Pacino. In 1998, Mirren played Cleopatra to Alan Rickman's Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" at the National Theatre. The production received poor reviews; "The Guardian" called it "plodding spectacle rarely informed by powerful passion", while "The Daily Telegraph" said "the crucial sexual chemistry on which any great production ultimately depends is fatally absent". In 2000 Nicholas Hytner, who had worked with Mirren on the film version of "The Madness of King George", cast her as Lady Torrance in his
Julian Curry of interviews with thirteen leading actors focussing on specific Shakespearean roles. It was nominated as 2011 Theatre Book of the Year. In "Shakespeare on Stage" Curry interviews Brian Cox (about the titular role of Titus Andronicus), Judi Dench (Juliet), Ralph Fiennes (about the titular role of Coriolanus), Rebecca Hall (Rosalind from "As You Like It"), Derek Jacobi (Malvolio from "Twelfth Night"), Jude Law ("Hamlet"), Adrian Lester ("Henry V"), Ian McKellen ("Macbeth"), Helen Mirren (Cleopatra), Tim Pigott-Smith (Leontes from "A Winter's Tale"), Kevin Spacey ("Richard II"), Patrick Stewart (Prospero from "The Tempest"), and Penelope Wilton (Isabella from "Measure for Measure. A