Peter Oswald's very long, very talky new version of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play, Mary Stuart, directed by Phillida Lloyd, gives us two strong women, Harriet Walter as Queen Elizabeth in a complex powerful performance, and Janet McTeer as Mary. As usual, McTeer is a powerful presence, but here, she is a declaimer who sings many of her lines in a kind of hammy recitation, especially as the play winds to its foregone emotional conclusion.
All the men and the one other woman, Maria Tucci, are quite good, with strong, stark portrayals. The physical style is interesting - dungeon wall, stark, a few benches. Men in suits and ties, women in period costumes works well (set and costumes by Anthony Ward). Mary's final red gown is spectacularly sexy; she is gorgeous. Lighting by Hugh Vanstone is superb.
The play is filled with long monologues about the political and personal with much subterfuge and anguish sung unendingly. People around me nodded out, some snored. At the end we see a ranting, unrepentant, self-destructive Mary, beautifully gowned. Elizabeth was clearly right to kill her.
