Mary Stuart - Almeida / Tour

I will be going to see this, it sounds really good.  Does anyone who's seen it have any comments on the music?  Apparently Laura Marling did the music and as a fan of hers I was wondering what it was like and how it contributes to the play.  Thanks :-).

Who did you think gave a terrible wooden performance? Who did you think was cast oddly?

OK, thanks for the reply .  From reading around it does seem like only one Marling song at the end.  It will be nice to hear it anyway .

The best moments for me were the Elizabeth I scenes, especially the political debates. Juliet Stevenson gives a powerhouse of a performance as the steely queen

And that's where I felt Friedrich Schiller's strengths lay

The Mary Stuart scenes are where we see the personal side to her and they're not bad. Lia Williams certainly gave a sincere and sometimes passionate performance. But I thought it was telling that after a slow 35-40 minute first scene, the energy suddenly went up when Juliet Stevenson and the nobles arrived.

The dialogue I felt can plod a long, especially at the start when it's dumping so much information in these debates. Then again I only looked at Mary Stuart during primary school and have only a general idea about her and the circumstances of her execution. But still I've seen plays with historical matter I know little about that had me engaged.

I didn't think the 3 hour and 5-10 minute running time was needed. There were moments I felt could be trimmed down. There's the moment where Elizabeth finally has to make the hard decision, and right afterwards the play has to make what feels like a scenes worth of her persuading her secretary to pass it on. Even though it comes back to bite at the end it just delays further what is a foregone conclusion. The tone even felt off where just before we had a serious and poignant moment went straight into a humorous moment as we see this secretary react to this responsibility he has been landed with.

We were there last night and really liked it. I agree with the comments above that it could have been trimmed a little (15 minutes I would have said.) It was Juliet as Elizabeth and Lia as Mary Stuart and that felt about right. Unlike some posters above, I really liked the supporting performances (with one notable exception) and thought most of the staging effective (again with one notable exception.) An advantage of the modern dress was that you could differentiate more clearly between Elizabeth's advisors and foes: Talbot played as a rumbled Kenneth Clark type; Burleigh, a Machiavellian, polished, besuited career politician; the French ambassador was like a younger, better looking Michael Gove. We enjoyed finding modern relevances - the majority isn't always right line; the expectations of a woman in power. I liked Rudi Dharmalingam as Mortimer - it's a great part and he was energetic and unexpected - a little ludicrous at times but in sort of a pleasing way - with the abandon of someone who would throw himself into such an ill-fated conspiracy. I thought John Light gave a very uncomfortable performance as Leicester - there was anti-chemistry between him and Stevenson and if they gave 'bad sex' awards for stage work, their giggle-inducing encounter would qualify. He acted a lot with his hands in his pockets. Then he would suddenly shout. Didn't get it. But in the relatively small role of Davidson, David Jonsson (a 2016 RADA graduate, I note) was wonderful.  Has hardly anything to do for most of the play and then two good scenes - the first of which was one of my favourite in the play. The staging of the ending was very powerful with excellent use of the revolve, costumes and music. 4*

Saw this last night and would give it 4 stars, although I don't disagree with any of Parsley's comments. Lia was Mary Stuart. In this performance I thought John Light came over quite well as Leicester. Some pruning would indeed help.

Like foxa I was struck by the likeness of the French ambassador to Michael Gove. But, foxa, "a younger, better looking Michael Gove"? How is that even possible?!

Meditate on the words of Keats "A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness" and let the image of Michael Gove emerge in your mind. Serenity and beauty will be yours.
 

Saw this tonight.

Rob Icke really needs to go and direct films for the cinema. He seems to have little interest in making theatre for the theatre, instead theatre as film.

Williams was slightly OTT but Stephenson was much more engaging and restrained. The "soundtrack" drove us nuts. Stolen from van Hove. Now feel this. Now feel this. What on earth was he doing with that folk song at the end from Laura Marling? Mortimer joined the OTT camp, and Jon Light who is normally brilliant was seriously underwhelming.

I'd say go for the performances on the leading ladies. The rest, not so sure.

Lia Williams a stunning Elizabeth I tonight.

Just saw on twitter that unfortunately both performances today are cancelled due to cast illness. Sorry JohnG - I suspect you are already on a train? - or maybe they got a message to you in time?

Yes, just saw that too. I'm booked for Friday, hope they are back on by then.

Johng - there are quite a few matinees on today, see Theatremonkey's Xmas schedule guide here - www.theatremonkey.com/daybydayindex.htm

Thanks to Xanderl for the link. I hadn't seen that on theatremonkey's site before (although I'm always on there for the seating plans), and it will be useful in future.

I had checked the TKTS site earlier but I saw This House in Chichester and I've got the Dresser booked at the CFT in January, and nothing else really appealed. I thoroughly enjoyed Nice Fish but not enough for a second visit.