Anna Burnside reviews a production with ‘huge ambition and scope’.
From The Nutcracker to Peaky Blinders, ballet relies heavily on familiar stories. And while Mary Queen of Scots is not an unknown quantity, those of us who left school when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister have forgotten some of the fine detail.
This is the first problem facing choreographer and co-creator Sophie Laplane in this ambitious piece of storytelling. The first half is mostly set-up and introductions, which in themselves rely on the audience having a strong grasp of what happened to Mary, her cousin Elizabeth, the courts in which they operated and the men who manipulated them.
The main dramatic device is juxtaposing the towering presence of a young Elizabeth - an imposing yet vulnerable Harvey Littlefield - with her older self, movingly danced by Charlotta Ofverholm. As the Virgin Queen fades away, she looks back on her life and her fraught relationship with her cousin, the Mary of the title.
Flirtatious and bold, danced by Roseanna Leney, Mary is everything her haughty cousin is not.
LaPlane is an uncompromising choreographer, picking bold over beautiful every time. Soutra Gilmour’s costumes try to take on some heavy lifting but it’s not clear why sometimes the chorus have fake bellies and are sometimes become sinister ants.
When Mary gives birth to a balloon it is immediately labelled James, a moment of clarity that could have been scaled up.
Mikael Karlsson & Michael P. Atkinson’s original score covers a good deal of ground, sometimes successfully, when borrowing obviously Scottish tropes less so.
This show has huge ambition and scope, the costumes and Bonnie Beecher’s lighting are lush and it’s always a pleasure to see women’s stories foregrounded. I just needed a bit more help to get the most out of it.
Mary Queen of Scots performed as part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. It will tour Scotland throughout September and October. For further details, go to Scottish Ballet’s website.
Photo by Andy Ross.
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