MARY STUART. To 15 May.
Southampton
MARY STUART
by Friedrich Schiller translated by Jeremy Sams
Nuffield Theatre To 15 May 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 3hr One interval
TICKETS: 023 8067 1771
tickets@nuffieldtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 May
Bold stab at the rival queens: a German view of an English monarch threatened by a French Queen of Scotland.Political leaders disclaiming responsibility, blaming lowly civil servants. Powerful, duplicitous self-seekers in government. There's quite a lot in Schiller's 1800 drama that could be decanted into modern political life. And the smooth-suited courtiers in Patrick Sandford's illuminating production hit it off supremely well.
Jonathan Newth's Burleigh is Lord Treasurer, but keeps a tight eye 1,000 paid eyes on the realm, putting the interests of the administration first. A steely-smooth Sir Humphrey, he's immaculate, unflappable and ruthless. At such top-level power-broking, personalities will always complicate matters, and there are times Burleigh and the Earl of Leicester seem motivated principally by rivalry.
On the surface, Adrian Schiller's Leicester is as unruffled an operator, but with divided loyalties he's fighting for his life and turns with shocking speed on a former ally in self-preservation. It's the idealists here who lose out.
As it is at monarch level. Monica Dolan's Mary is very modern in her neurosis; a candidate for beta-blockers but also impulsive and, just about convincingly, like a naïve and sentimental child when allowed out of her prison. Occasionally you can see technique shaping character in Dolan's Mary but she's often an invigorating, emotionally generous, if temperamental person. Her queenliness is most evident when denying complicity in plots against Elizabeth I, even to her confessor. Changing from prison clothes to white, it's clear her execution is her wedding-day with Christ.
Jessica Turner's Elizabeth is more dead-centre characterisation; rightly enough. Less interesting than Mary for her emotional geography, she's buttoned-up and complex as a ruler, unable to decide, yet suddenly switching tack. Not for turning, having no reverse gear, yet aware of the rough focus-group the mob outside provides.
Twice Mary's grey prison-wall rises. First time, it's to reveal Elizabeth's magnificence; second-time is at the execution, showing a candle-strewn, red-lit space with thurible swinging the epitome of Mary's world, in which majestic Elizabeth finally stands alone and uncertain. Throughout, Juliet Shillingford provides a spare, apt setting, with a gleaming arc suggestive of crown or ring, shooting stars and galactic whirl often projected on the cyclorama in this finely revived play of dizzying forces.
Hanna Kennedy: Jennifer Piercey
Paulet/Aubespine: David Alcock
Mary Stuart: Monica Dolan
Mortimer: Philip Desmeules
Burleigh: Jonathan Newth
Davison: Phillip Edgerley
Kent/Melville: Iain Stuart Robertson
Elizabeth: Jessica Turner
Bellievre/O' Kelly: Robin Belfield
Leicester: Adrian Schiller
Talbot: David Lyon
Other parts: Tom Brownlee, Abi Linnartz, Rebecca Pennick, Luke Richards, Andrew Smith, Victoria Watts, Marie Woodhouse
Director: Patrick Sandford
Designer: Juliet Shillingford
Lighting: David W Kidd
Composer: Carlton Edwards
Fight director: Kate Waters
Assistant director: Robin Belfield
2004-05-15 01:52:14