Review: SCOTTISH BALLET - MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, Sadler's Wells

The story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is both history and legend, reflecting the struggle for power between the Royal Houses of Tudor (England) and Stuart (Scotland).

Scottish Ballet's two-hour work, created by choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas, offers a close look at the life of Mary, granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor. As a Catholic claimant to the throne of England, she represents a direct threat to the court of Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I.

The ballet opens with the ageing Elizabeth (Charlotta Ofverholm) on her deathbed, haunted by the memory of ordering her Scottish rival’s execution. The three blows of the axe that removed Mary’s head shudder through her body. From there, we move back in time to France, to the court of Catherine de Medici (Madeline Squire) and young Mary’s wedding to the Dauphin, Francois (James Garrington).

Teenage Mary (Roseanna Leney) has been exiled from the country she rules by right. When her husband dies young, she is shunned by Catherine and sent back across the water to Scotland. These events are captured with style and clarity, including Mary’s attempts to submit herself to her former mother-in-law, both heartfelt and pitiful.

In Scotland, there is celebration at Mary’s return, but Elizabeth (Harvey Littlefield) senses danger and sends spies to watch every move. She also notices a man at court who might tempt Mary’s sexual appetite, Darnley (Evan Loudon), and dispatches him north to try his luck.

All this unfolds against an imaginative, pulsating score by Mikael Karlsson and Michael P Atkinson, blending Celtic rhythms with more reflective passages. Soutra Gilmour’s set provides both confinement and space for expression, with walls that rise and fall in response to events. Cupboards, cages, platforms and projections constantly reshape the stage.

A detailed synopsis in the freesheet and programme helps orientate those unfamiliar with the period, while Tudor enthusiasts will enjoy the unconventional treatment of major events. 

Mary, by contrast, is more frivolous and delicate: a toy in a world of intrigue manipulated by spymaster Walsingham (Thomas Edwards) and his bug-like network of spies. She is happiest when playing games with her companions, the four Marys and Rizzio (Bruno Micchardi), briefly setting aside the burden of rule.

Darnley offers an exciting escape at first, but he has ambitions of his own. He begins an affair with Rizzio, with a sensual duet, but later, resentful, has him murdered in a powerful scene closing the first act. As Mary loses ground in Scotland, her movements grow more urgent, and her need for connection with her cousin intensifies.

Proxies for the two Queens (Anna Williams for Mary, Grace Horler for Elizabeth) dance out their correspondence as Leney and Littlefield look on. Costumes nodding to the punk era — reminiscent of Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee — add a feminist charge.

In Laplane and Bonas’s production, the Queens never meet, yet remain bound together. Elizabeth’s decision to execute Mary emerges as a profound crisis of conscience. A jester figure (Kayla-Maree Tarantolo), a splash of lime green in a world dominated by black and white, offers a bridge between now and then.

Mary, Queen of Scots, is a remarkable piece of work, offering pointed comment on the place of women in the sixteenth-century court and on the mythology that casts Mary as a martyr. Both Queens now lie side by side in Westminster Abbey — a fitting coda to their rivalry. They meet, finally, in death.

Scottish Ballet - Mary, Queen of Scots is at Sadler's Wells until 8 March