Susan Granger’s review of “Mary Stuart” (Broadhurst Theater: ’08-’09 season)
Imagine the battle of wits of “Frost/Nixon” – but between two British Queens.
In Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 play, adapted by Peter Oswald, Protestant Queen Elizabeth I (Harriet Walter) must decide the fate of her Roman Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scotland (Janet McTeer), whom many believe, by right of royal blood, should be on the throne of England. (If you’ve been following TV’s “The Tudors,” you already realize the dramatic potential in the genealogy here, since Elizabeth was the bastard child of Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn.)
After an unsuccessful attempt at a coup, volatile, rebellious Mary, tended by her loyal nurse Hanna (Maria Tucci), is being held prisoner by icy, wary Elizabeth in the dungeon of Fotheringhay Castle. As the courtiers jockey for position, trying to influence one Queen or another, a confrontation is inevitable. Elizabeth is well aware that her throne is at risk as long as Mary lives, yet she can’t quite bring herself to sign the death warrant. But one has to wait until Act II for that – and it’s worth it – as director Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!”) gradually builds the crackling suspense and sinister tension to a crescendo as their rivalry explodes – not just for political power but also for male sexual attention, epitomized by John Benjamin Hickey as the deceitful Earl of Leicester.
Janet McTeer, who won at Tony for “A Doll’s House” in 1997, is nothing less than electrifying as she pleads for her life, and she’s matched step-by-step by Harriet Walter, last seen on Broadway with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1983.
While Anthony Ward’s sets are impressive, his costuming concept is striking: while the women wear proper Elizabethan garb, the men (Brian Murray, Chandler Williams, Nicholas Woodeson Michael Countryman) wear dark, contemporary Westminster suits, appearing interchangeable in their timeless duplicity, except for Robert Stanton as a fatefully naïve courtier.
For brilliant theater, don’t miss this classic battle of divas.