The Velvet Touch of Persuasion: Mary Stuart, Theatre Review
Mary Stuart
Written by Friedrich Schiller
Adopted by Peter Oswald
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Starring: Janet McTeer, Harriet Walter, Brian Murray, Chandler Williams
Broadhurst Theatre, New York
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Imagine if Alberto Fujimori had fled Peru to Japan and then tried to become Prime Minister. What would Prime Minister Aso do with him? Serve him sencha tea?
This seems an absurd scenario today (although Fujimori did flee Peru after being accused of human rights violations), but in 16th century England anything was possible. Throw in sex and a few bloodlines, and there you go.
Frierdrich Schiller’s 1800 play Mary Stuart is set shortly after Henry VIII beheaded several of his wives and created his own Church. Queen Mary Stuart, a Catholic, has fled Scotland after being ousted from the throne by Protestants and her half-brother. She has sought asylum in England and the protection of Queen Elizabeth I. The problem is that she has also asserted a claim to the English throne. Several assassination attempts against Queen Elizabeth I have implicated her, and the once proud and passionate Mary Queen of Scots has lived for two decades under close guard in isolated castles.
Mary Stuart is a new translation from the German original and Phyllida Lloyd’s production is also new. There is a freshness about the set — not least because of the spring rain that falls upon the stage — and the dialogue comes across as nuanced and insightful. I thought, while listening to the eloquent soliloquies, that Shakespeare may have written like this if he was alive today, instead of pottering about in his Elizabethan drawl. (What kid nowadays does not use the glossary on the verso page of Macbeth?) It is little surprise that translator Peter Oswald was once a writer in residence at Shakespeare’s Globe. I also found it very enjoyable that the lords and knights don modern business suits, while the leading actresses wear stylized period dress. We are at once watching boardroom and royal court, bridging the centuries.
Read the full review here.
