| |
Theatre listings >
Mary, Queen of Scotland
Got Her Head Cut Off. - Tour.
Playwright - Liz Lochhead.
Director - Benjamin Twist.
Designer - Neil Warmington.
Choroegrapher - Norman Douglas.
Lighting Designer - Jeanine Davies.
Music Director - Dougal Lee.
Company - Prime Productions.
Cast - here .
Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at North Edinburgh Arts Centre.
Run Time - 2 hours 20 mins including 15 mins interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good .
Up for it style.
Mary, Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off - Prime Productions.
Pauline Knowles as Betty and seated Sandie Armstrong as Mary Queen
of Scots.
© photographer 2003
|
Mary Queen of Scots Had Her Head Chopped Off is a play whose theatricality
and up for it style has an enduring appeal. Written in a tough, robust
Scots layered with meanings, using the myths of the two Queens Mary and
Elizabeth it comments on Scotland, women in power and how past influences
our present culture.
La Corbie*, the one who is always around commenting on the action. It's
a smasher of a role, the bird who's first to the battlefield and last
away from the road kill. Helen Logan plays it combined with the
Fiddler. As she turns her head to one side her nose seems to grow into
a beak or as she moves her legs with precision you see claws on her feet.
She also sings many of the songs in the production, Logan's mercurial
quality, already appreciated in Pitlochry Theatre's 2002 Season, fits
the feyness of the role.
The two Queens, their maids and women of the street are played by Pauline
Knowles and Sandie Armstrong, and they're nicely contrasting
women. Armstrong's Queen Mary in her trim 50's Vogue dress and
French accented And sometimes hard to follow Scots is an unsettling, charismatic
mix, prone to effective use of tears in public. Knowles's Queen
Elizabeth is stern and tight reined in public barely letting the guard
down in private.
Iain Macrae's Hepburn O'Bothwell is sensuous and dangerous. Like
Mary I'd go to hell in a white petticoat for him. With Macrae you
get all of the man, his intelligence and his animal magic. Lacking even
righteous strength is Michael Vaughan's John Knox. His sparring
with Mary has no bite or zeal. One can only hope he will grown into the
role.
Throughout the play physical movement contrasts between the characters
from Elizabeth's restraint, Mary's poise, La Corbie's avian movements
and Hepburn O'Bothwell, a man in command of his body. The cast also move
as chorus frequently breaking into dance as well as song. Norman Douglas's
choreography gives life and colour and he himself as Riccio a wee deformed
man, captures how frail and half-life things are for loyal servants. Robert
Crawford completes the cast as the naive Darnley passed over from one
Queen to the other.
Performed on and around a scaffold where Mary finally ends her days, this
set dominates and constrains some of the action. Sometimes the set works
well as in the murder in the Queens private rooms, but it is I fear too
tall to be really effective and too wide in very narrow venues.
It ends with a final scene bringing Scotland's myths up to date where
being different from those around, a Pape like Mary or a Prod like Knox,
can still bring you down is given full force. Directed by Benjamin Twist
and containing some very satisfying performances the production is roaming
all over Scotland for the next three months.
© Thelma Good 17 March 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Corbie - Scots for the bird English call the Raven.
Cast: La Corbie - Helen Logan, Mary - Sandie
Armstrong, Elizabeth - Pauline Knowles, Hepburn O'Bothwell - Iain Macrae,
Knox - Michael Vaughan, Dancer/Riccio - Norman Douglas and Darnley - Robert
Crawford. All other parts by the cast.
Tour Details of Prime Productions' production
of Mary, Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off.
Tour begins
13 March at
2 & 8 pm Stirling macRobert Centre 01798 646 6666.
14 & 15 March at 8pm Stirling macRobert Centre 01798 646
6666.
17 March at 7:30pm North Edinburgh Arts Centre 0131 315
2151.
18 March at 7:30pm Strathaven The Town Mill 01357 522327.
19 & 20 March at 7:45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887.
21 & 22 March at 7:30pm Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010
.
25 March at 7:30pm Irvine Magnum Arts Centre, 01294 313010
.
26 March at 7:30pm Stranraer Ryan Centre Theatre 01776 703
535.
27 March at 7:30pm Moffat Old Well Theatre 01683 211 200.
28 & 29 March at 7:30pm Dumfries Theatre Royal 01387 247
780.
31 March at 7:30pm Peterhead CEC Theatre 01779 477 277.
1 April at 7:30pm Inverurie Town Hall 01467 625 800.
2 April at 7:30pm Elgin Town Hall 01343 562 600.
3 April at 7:30pm Newtonhill Bettridge Centre 01569731825.
4 & 5 April at 7pm Aberdeen Lemon Tree. 01224642230.
7 - 10 April at 7:30pm various venues in Shetland 01595692114.
11 & 12 April at 7:30pm Sat mat at 2:30pm Lerwick Garrison
Theatre 01595692114.
22 April at 7:30pm Dunoon The Queen's Hall. 01369702800.
23 April at 7:30pm Oban Corran Halls 01631 567333.
24 April at 8pm Stontian Arainn Shuaineirt. 01397709228.
26 April at 7:30pm Skye Sabhal MorOstaig, 01471 844207.
29 April at 7:30pm Barra Castlebay School 01871 810259.
30 April at 7:30pm Benbecula Lionacleit School tickets at door.
2 May at 8pm Stornoway Town Hall 01851 703307.
3 May at 7:30pm Ullapool Macphail Theatre 01854613336.
6 May at 8pm Aultbea Village Hall 01445731311.
7 May at 8pm Lochinver Village Hall 01571 844262 .
8 May at 8pm Skerray Village Hall 01641 521212.
9 & 10 May at 8pm Thurso Mill Theatre 01847892019.
12 May at 7:30pm Clashmore Carnegie Hall 01862811068.
13 May at 7:30pm Invergordon Arts Centre 01349868479 .
15 May at 2 & 7:30pm Melrose Wynd Theatre 01896823854.
16 May at 7:30pm Dunfermline Carnegie Hall 01383314000.
17 May at 7:30pm Kilmamock Palace Theatre 01563554900.
19 & 20 May at 7:30pm Livingston Howden Park Centre 01506433634.
21 - 24 May at 7:30pm also 22 May at 1:30 pm Musselburgh Brunton
Theatre 0131 665 2240.
Tour Ends.
Theatre listings >>
|
|
