MARY STUART. To 18 November.
Edinburgh
MARY STUART
by Friedrich Schiller new version by David Harrower.
Royal Lyceum Theatre To 18 November 2006.
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat 8, 11, 18 Nov 2.30pm
Audio-described 9 Nov, 11 Nov 2.30pm (+Touch Tour @ 12.30pm)
BSL Signed 15 Nov
Post-show discussion 7 Nov
Runs 2hr 50 min One interval.
TICKETS: 0131 248 4848.
www.lyceum.org.uk.
Review: Thelma Good 2 November.
Hinders the play’s potential power.
Mary Stuart never did meet her older cousin Elizabeth. The most dramatic scene in Schiller’s play never actually occurred. Director Vicky Featherstone tries to get two points of intensity from it in her National Theatre Scotland production (transferring from Glasgow Citizens' Theatre), leading us into the mid-play encounter just before the interval so that the second half retracks and runs it again.
Siobhan Redmond gives us the regal power of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and leaves us in no doubt how hard won it was. Also notable is Robin Laing’s slithery, fascinating Mortimer. Yet the challenge formed by the set, and the austere look of Catherine Cusack’s Mary Stuart, mean that only in the second half can we glimpse a woman who might command as well as charm.
A for-effect artistic decision in the production hinders the play’s potential power repeatedly. Mary is held by her cousin in Fotheringay Castle, her enclosure suggested by the tall set walls, the only exit and entrance achieved via a long rectangular hole placed bang across the middle of the stage. In a play where individuals’ power retreats and advances throughout, this denial of the most powerful part of the stage undermines nearly all the skilled cast and cramps the action unnecessarily.
Even when cover is put in place for the scenes in the Palace of Westminster, or for the scene outdoors, it’s not a solid cover but a slightly recessed grating, making you always conscious of the physical void beneath. It’s an overly-heavy metaphor, weakening the flow of the performances’ energy, which should move fully and freely down the stage to the audience and back.
Despite some strong casting, the staging and direction of this Mary Stuart obstructs the actors from fully delivering. Schiller’s play, in David Harrower’s version, certainly draws out how difficult it is for women and indeed rulers to exert power, how prone they are to humanness, how frightening they are when they steel themselves against such normal emotions. But this very wordy play needs more dynamic direction and a complete stage.
Mary Stuart : Catherine Cusack.
Elizabeth : Siobhan Redmond.
Kent/Bellievre/Burgoyne : Callum Cuthbertson.
Paulet : Ken Dury.
Mortimer : Robin Laing.
Leicester : Phil McKee.
O’Kelly/Davison : Jamie Michie.
Shrewsbury : Ralph Riach.
Melville/Aubespine : Roy Sampson.
Burleigh : John Stahl.
Jane Kennedy : Eileen Walsh.
Director : Vicky Featherstone.
Designer/Costume : Neil Warmington.
Lighting: Natasha Chivers.
Sound: Tom Zwitserlood
Composer: John Harris.
Video Designer : John Alder.
2006-11-05 23:08:09