Mary Stuart

<i>Two queens. One in power. One in prison. It's all in the execution.</i><br/><br/>Schiller's political tragedy takes us behind the scenes of British history's famous rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Written in verse and based on historical sources Schiller's play imagines the queens' lives - one in court the other in prison - surrounded by staff and servants. Their imagined meeting before Mary's execution is passionate and enthralling. <br/><br/>Robert Icke's lean version condenses the action cutting the cast to twelve whilst retaining the play's symmetrical structure and tense atmosphere. <br/><br/>In an exciting twist the first production had two actors learn the roles of both queens and their roles were decided at each performance by the toss of a coin. Adding a further duality to the play this also allowed the first word of the evening to anticipate its ending: 'Heads'.