PAIR OF QUEENS ARE THE ACES IN A THRILLING AND MEMORABLE GAME |
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) Photo: Stephen A'Court Mary Stuart By Friedrich Schiller A new version by David Harrower Directed by Ross Jolly at Circa One, Wellington From 27 Feb 2010 to 3 Apr 2010 Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 1 Mar 2010 originally published in The Dominion Post |
There are two compelling reasons to see Mary Stuart, which was first performed in 1800 in Germany, and they are the tremendous performances of Tina Regtien and Carmel McGlone as the two queens caught up in a tangle of lethal political, dynastic, and religious forces that rent Europe apart.
It is an endlessly fascinating story and one that Schiller plays with for his own philosophical and theatrical purposes. The great scene when Mary and Elizabeth confront each other at Fotheringay Castle never happened and his scheming Mortimer (Nathan Meister), who attempts to free Mary, is also pure fiction.
Schiller’s blank verse has been translated by David Harrower into flexible modern prose which no doubt reduces the almost operatic force of the original (so I have read) into something more commonplace, in that Elizabeth’s courtiers can now be more easily seen as duplicitous politicians in a contemporary political thriller with religious fundamentalist overtones, which, of course, at one level it is.
This is underlined by the costumes of the male courtiers who are dressed in modern business suits, while the queens and Mary’s lady-in-waiting (the admirable Darien Takle) are dressed in rich traditional period costumes.
Only when the men don Elizabethan short cloaks on top of their suits do they appear ridiculous, as do the effete French ambassadors (played for laughs by Gerald Bryan, Nick Dunbar)) to Elizabeth’s court when they wear anachronistic berets and sashes of the revolutionary tricolour.
But any production of this tragedy only succeeds with two actors who can carry off the emotional demands of their roles. In this Regtien and McGlone are in perfect accord. Regtien’s Mary goes to her execution with nobility and dignity while her explosion of anger at Elizabeth that seals her death is thrillingly done.
McGlone’s Elizabeth is a subtle mixture of fear, pride, and sexual desire as seen in her erotic dance with Leicester (Aaron Alexander), but her most memorable scenes are when Elizabeth vacillates with Davison (Gavin Rutherford) over the sending of the death warrant and the final scene when she is alone, isolated, the victim of realpolitik.
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