‘Victoria’ at the Watermill Theatre

Osborne House 1901. As Victoria faces the final days of her reign, she clings to her diaries, the carefully kept record of a life defined by love, duty and profound loss. Into this certainty comes her younger self, forcing the older Victoria to confront memories she’s chosen to bury and truths she’s decided to forget.

Victoria and Albert are celebrated as one of history’s great love stories. Victoria had nine children with Albert, and after his premature death at 42, she spent the rest of her life mourning her ‘dearest angel’. At least that is the story told in her diaries. But does writing something make it true? Looking back at a young queen, this new play tells the story of a woman pregnant for most of her 20s and 30s, gradually surrendering her strength and authority to her controlling husband, and growing increasingly lonely in her crumbling marriage.