NEW YORK: Oscar-winning English actress Helen Mirren will play the role of Britain's Queen Elizabeth again - this time in a stage play from the screenplay writer of "The Queen," producers said on Friday.

Dame Helen will star in Peter Morgan's "The Audience," opening in London in 2013. The play traces 60 years of weekly "audiences" or meetings at Buckingham Palace between the British monarch and her prime ministers.

Britain has had 12 prime ministers during Queen Elizabeth's 60-year reign, and the play imagines some of the pivotal private meetings that took place as the Queen, who ascended to the throne at age 25, grew from young womanhood to elder stateswoman, producers said in a statement.

Stephen Daldry, the man behind the stage musical and movie "Billy Elliot," will direct. -- AGENCIES