<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Dame Helen Mirren has revealed that she feels bad about shouting at a drum troupe on Saturday (May4) but said that it &amp;quot;had to be done&amp;quot;. The actress launched a foul-mouthed rant at the musicians after they interrupted a performance of The Audience, in which she was performing as the Queen.  Mirren told The Telegraph: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m afraid there were a few &amp;#039;thespian&amp;#039; words used. They got a very stern royal ticking off but I have to say they were very sweet and they stopped immediately. &amp;quot;I felt rotten but on the other hand they were destroying our performance so something had to be done.&amp;quot; The 67-year-old - who recently won an Olivier award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the play - became frustrated by the disturbance towards the end of the first act.  &amp;quot;The drumming just slowly got louder and louder and then settled right outside the stage door,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;There was just a thin wall between drumming and the theatre so it was unbelievably loud on stage. Paul Ritter and I could hardly hear each other speak and the audience couldn&amp;#039;t hear us speak at all. &amp;quot;We were doing this last scene of the first act where the Queen is being told she is going to lose Britannia [the royal yacht], it&amp;#039;s quite an emotional scene.  &amp;quot;I thought, we can&amp;#039;t carry on like this, they have to stop.&amp;quot;  Describing the outburst, during which the actress is reported to have used the word &amp;#039;f**k&amp;#039; several times, she said: &amp;quot;I was so upset from struggling through the scene with Paul that I literally walked straight off stage, straight up the stairs and straight out the stage door and banged my way through the crowd who were watching and said &amp;#039;Stop, you&amp;#039;ve got to stop right now&amp;#039; only I might have used stronger language than that. &amp;quot;They were very sweet and stopped the minute they knew I wasn&amp;#039;t just a batty old woman haranguing them on the streets of Soho on a Saturday night.&amp;quot; Mirren told the paper that she would like to find the &amp;quot;fellow performers&amp;quot; and invite them to see the play. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a479056/helen-mirren-on-drummers-rant-i-felt-bad-but-it-had-to-be-done/>