2 Mary Stuart

(Paperback)

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Description

Schiller's play of 1800 pits Mary Queen of Scots against her rival Elizabeth of England. The meeting never happened, but Goethe claimed 'It will be good to see those whores alongside each other.' Schiller's Mary redeems her youthful crimes through an ordeal that lifts her into the realms of spiritual serenity, while Elizabeth descends deeper into rage, revenge and deception. Peter Oswald's version, mixing poetry and prose, opened at the Donmar Warehouse in Londons West End in July 2005.

Reviews

Aeschylus Oresteia might be the cornerstone of Western drama, but its not an easy ask. However, in adaptor/director Robert Ickes outstanding modern updating, which achieves the hurtling momentum of the best box-sets, its slickly compelling viewingsuffice to say theres a firm senseof a man in full and joyous command of his complex material This is Greek drama humanised and modernised and its a tremendous acheivement. * Evening Standard *
Ickes heartfelt, occasionally blackly comic adaptation life, in all its mundanity, heightened into something remarkable. Or maybe Chekhov and Ickes skilfully wrought frame is a reminder that there never was anything more remarkable than life itself. * Time Out *
Exhilarating - a fast moving narrative about the imprisoning effect of power. * Guardian *

Author Bio

Peter Oswald was born in England in 1965. His original plays include the verse plays 'Allbright' and 'Valadonama', and 'Fair Ladies At A Game Of Poem Cards', 'Augustine's Oak', 'Ramayana', and 'Sha Kuntala'. He has also adapted plays by Sophocles and Lorca. Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) ranks as one of the greatest figures in European drama and literature. That Verdi based four of his operas on Schiller's plays is not surprising (I masnadieri, Giovanna d'Arco, Luisa Miller, Don Carlos). Both men were deeply preoccupied with the battle for political freedon, projecting the moral victory of the doomed individual over the power of the immutable State as potent historical drama. Schiller's nobility of theatrical concept perfectly suited the energy and majesty of Verdi's scores. Yet in the English-speaking world Schiller's works are comparatively little known to theatregoers. The dedication of the renowned Glasgow-based Citizens' Company and the inspired decision to present the plays alongside Verdi's operas at the Edinburgh International Festival have gone a long way to remedy this neglect. The fifth play included in this edition was the source fro the opera by Donizetti (Maria Stuarda). Also translated for the Citizens' Company by Robert David MacDonald, Schiller's 'Mary Stuart' is acknowledged masterpiece.