AS the perfectly titled Game of Thrones implies, members of royal families are often used as pawns. None more so than Mary Stuart, just six days old when she acceded to the Scottish throne during a particularly turbulent period in this island’s story.
A martyr to some, a murdering adulteress to others, a constant throughout history – perhaps until Antonia Fraser’s 1969 landmark, myth-busting biography – was to characterise her as one or the other, depending on one’s own personal allegiances. Mary, the complex human being, a person in her own right, was a ghost.
By using Mary’s own poetry and letters, plus songs she would have been familiar with, this highly charged operatic story show feels is as intimate as it’s possible to be to her 16th-century world.
Composers Eddie McGuire, Dee Isaacs and Judith Bingham – whose anthem for the re-internment of Richard III has been viewed online more than 700 million times – each focus on a different era of Mary’s life, including her early years in France and the murder of her private secretary and rumoured lover David Rizzio.
“All I knew was the playground song Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off,” says Glasgow-based contralto Louise Macdonald, who performs alongside pianist Ingrid Sawers. “I started learning Schumann’s Maria Stuart Lieder with pianist Malcolm Martineau and I became hooked and wanted to share my vision of Mary. Her intelligence, quick wit, passion, tenderness and faith deserve to be celebrated.”
Mary, Queen of Scots is at Space@StMarks, (V125), 12.30pm (tomorrow, Aug 18, 21, 23 and 24), 3.30pm (Aug 19 and 20), £14 (£12 concs). Tel: 0131 226 0000. edfringe.com
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