“Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off”
by Liz Lochhead
This is the title of a modern play I saw yesterday evening; after the first ten minutes or so, which I found a little hard to follow, it turned out to be a most interesting and amusing recounting of the interplay of politics, love (and lust) which led to her eventual execution.
The play was spoken in a mixture of Broad Scots (that was the bit that was a little difficult to follow until I got used to it), English, French and Italian and switched back and forth between Mary’s Court in Edinburgh and Elizabeth I’s Court in London and showed both in a sympathetic light without in any way glossing over the glaring character defects of both. The main players, apart from Mary and Elizabeth, were second husband Henry Stuart (Earl of Darnley), secretary Davide Rizzio and her lover James Hepburn (4th Earl of Bothwell). Altogether a very pleasant interlude, without a thought of what’s going on elsewhere in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Welcome to my comment area. Whilst all comment is welcome you are requested to respect the views of others. To read full terms for use of this facility, please visit my 'Terms of Use' section, linked to under the 'About this Blog' heading at top right of the blog. Note added 12JUL2010 - All comments will now be pre-moderated before they appear in this blog; this is a measure to prevent 'spam' commenting, which has become frequent of late. Thank you.