22 Thursday, December 1, 2016 The Gazette WHAT’SON THEATRE MARY STUART The Tudor thriller with echoes of Isis and Brexit ow a 19th century verse play about Tudor BRIDGET GALTON talks to Rudi Dharmalingam politics can have about playing a radicalised 16th Century fanatic Hcontemporary echoes of religious fundamentalism and Brexit is perhaps a question for Robert Icke. But then the dynamic director is have their own aura and essence. with Mary. known for making Aeschylus’ Any actor is going to give “Elizabeth is a target of 2,500-year-old Oresteia feel newly something different and working murderous Catholic radicals out to minted, and creating a radically with two actors on the same scene install the religion back into reworked version of Orwell’s 1984. will have variants. One will stay England. Mortimer is a fictional Both those shows were at The still on a line where the other one role created by Schiller but as a Almeida where in addition to moves. We have to be open minded young man who has grown up adapting German playwright about how it’s going to change from Protestant and become radicalised Friedrich Schiller’s Mary Stuart, night to night.” during a gap year, he’s Icke has added a frisson by deciding Dharmalingam says the cast representative of many Catholic who plays Elizabeth and Mary each which also includes Thick of It and missionaries who wanted to night on a coin toss. Cucumber actor Vincent Franklin assassinate Elizabeth I and free Either Highgate actress Juliet took just “twenty minutes” to start Mary from prison. Stevenson will put her head on the talking about Brexit on the first day “They were often young men block, or Lia Williams, currently of rehearsals. trained or indoctrinated by priests tearing up TV screens as Wallis “It’s not the same, but that feeling in Europe. He feels he has a Simpson in The Crown and of isolation has echoes with the mission. In his zeal he’s prepared to butcher’s wife Nadia in The feeling post referendum. A new sacrifice himself for the greater Missing. religion has been established in good. It’s that sense of something The device has led to the press England with Catholicism branded bigger than yourself. He thinks this night being delayed by a week a criminal offence. England is about is his destiny God has asked him to according to Rudi Dharmalingam, to be ex-communicated by the Pope do it. It has given him great focus, who plays Mortimer: “We are in a which means cutting ties with the self-assurance but there’s also good position but the creative team Catholic Church and the majority naivety.” and actors have made the decision of Europe. Who knows what the As for the verse, he insists it’s after becoming aware that we are future holds? Brexit was a “very accessible” and “pertinent to essentially creating two different multigenerational choice that we the essence of the piece”. versions of the show with two have made who’s to say what it’s “It gives added momentum to the different queens. We going to bring?” plot and as with Shakespeare it underestimated how much work Focusing on the last days of Mary fuels our thoughts and gives an that was going to entail.” Queen of Scots as Elizabeth I underlying pulse. The stakes are How the head-swapping regime dithers over signing her death very high for all involved.” affect the rest of the cast is warrant, Icke intensifies the It’s safe to say he loves working ■ Rudi Dharmalingam in Mary Stuart at the Almeida. definitely a good question for thriller by compressing the action with Icke: “He likes reworking Dharmalingam, whose past theatre into one day. As the nephew of classics and making them relevant discover it for ourselves and he I’ve been very lucky so far.” work includes The History Boys Mary’s jailer, Mortimer offers Mary for a modern audience. The whole tweaks it. I didn’t go into this job to and The Events. hope of being sprung from jail as process is really free and open. act in soaps. I am interested in ■ Mary Stuart is at the Almeida “The heart of our performances is an increasingly paranoid Elizabeth Some directors have a pre-ordained telling multi-layered stories with Theatre Islington from December 2 essentially the same. But all actors gets wind of plots to supplant her idea of staging but with him we multi-dimensional characters and until January 21. REVIEW All female trilogy is immersive and thrilling SHAKESPEARE TRILOGY since that’s no longer a radical idea, Clune’s swaggering Caesar; Jade King’s Cross Theatre and as the performances are so Anouka’s prizefighter Hotspur, lethal convincing, it can feel unnecessary, Antony and buoyant Ariel; Sophie especially when we’re wrenched out Stanton’s buffoonish but damaging Phyllida Lloyd has completed her of the drama or when amusing props Falstaff and self-pitying Caliban; all-female trilogy, begun in 2012 at or contemporary gags make the work Clare Dunne’s fiery Portia and Donmar Warehouse, by staging The too comic. laddish Hal; Leah Harvey’s open- Tempest alongside previous hits Harriet Walter plays a real life- hearted Miranda; Sheila Antim’s Julius Caesar and Henry IV at a sentenced political prisoner separated stirring Lady Percy; and Martina specially built King’s Cross theatre. from her daughter, and that parental Laird’s eloquent Cassius. Strong individually, they’re particu- grief and weary authority infuses her Bunny Christie and Chloe larly rewarding viewed together, with roles. She’s an anguished Brutus, Lamford’s institutional design recurring themes: self-expression desperately searching for the honour- encloses us with a chain-link fence, through role-playing; jostling for able path; a King Henry steely and and there are vivid projections from position and territory; loyalty and manspreading on the throne, but Duncan McLean, propulsive move- factionalism; and, most resonantly lonely and insomniac; and a watchful, ment from Ann Ye and Kate Waters, given the setting, captivity and isolated Prospero who fears abandon- otherworldly island music from Joan freedom. ment. Mesmerising and androgynous, Armatrading, and expressive lighting That setting is a women’s prison, she anchors all three plays. from James Farncombe. Immersive, with the inmates sometimes breaking But it’s a strong, refreshingly kinetic and a thrilling portrait of character or interrupted by guards. It diverse company, with standout wide-ranging humanity. ■ Martina Laird (Cassius) and Harriet Walter (Brutus) in Julius Caesar. justifies the all-female casting, but performances including Jackie Marianka Swain Picture: HELEN MAYBANKS.