RAPPORT FRINGE ... MARGINAAL VERSLAG ... FRINGE BERICHT
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drinks Monday 4 August 08
The Lifeblood
Verdict: Sexy Mary Stuart
The Lifeblood is 60 minutes of tense drama about the trial and execution of Mary Queen Of Scots. There's a cast of 5 (1F, 4M).
Mary Stuart led a complex life. The historical story is told on many internet sites - most entertainingly here. Sex, incest, murder, religion - Mary did it all. The Lifeblood focuses on her last few days.
The brief historical facts involving the play's characters are:
Mary Stuart (b 7 December 1542, Linlithgow Palace; d 8 February 1587, Fotheringhay Castle; reburied at Westminster Abbey), former Queen of Scotland, sought political refuge in England under the protection of the protestant Queen Elizabeth 1. Catholics saw Mary Stuart as queen of England. Mary was imprisoned for 18 years, finally under the supervision of puritan Sir Amyas Paulet. Sir Francis Walsingham constructed The Babington Plot, a set of false letters supposedly from the catholic Sir Anthony Babington (mentioned but not appearing in the play) - to Mary Stuart to which she replied. Her replies formed the basis of her trial in 1586, followed by her execution in 1587.
Mary Stuart's motto, hung as the backdrop to the stage - In My End is My Beginning (En Ma Fin Ma Commencement) - is hardly the slogan of a shrinking violet, and this Mary Stuart is not. From the start of The Lifeblood her iron-willed, sexy, beguiling character locks attention, and drives the action.
Mary Stuart is under house-arrest in a damp house next to a sewer. Puritan jailer Sir Amyas Paulet rips down her silk banner with its proud slogan; and strips her of her servants. She's left with secretary Claude Arno. He's French, and so's she - partly. Age 16 she was shipped from Scotland to France to marry the Dauphine Francis II, but he died. Her life after that was a mess - mainly her own fault - of failed political intrigue.
A letter arrives by a secret route, apparently hidden in a beer-barrel from France. Young Sir Anthony Babington offers to save Mary with a posse of soldiers. Ignoring her secretary who fears a trap, she replies. It's a trick by Sir Francis Walsingham, charged by Elizabeth 1 with destroying Mary. The trial (her remarkable speech is here) is the play's high point of drama. The aftermath is handled most skilfully, with action up to the last full stop.
Running away with the play is the remarkable performance of Sue Scott Davison as Mary Stuart. Her sexy deep-velvet voice make an immediate impact from the second of the play's opening. This is to be Mary Stuart's story, and without stealing attention from the other actors, Sue Scott Davison places Mary at the focus. It's a consistent performance, with shades of tone and emphasis exactly appropriate to each of the script's subtle scenes.
Even the most robust of Mary's supporters might agree that her life reads mainly as a failure. And the most robust of her detractors might agree her performance at her trial, and her magnificent speech, to be her life's most spectacular triumph. Sue Scott Davison delivers this crucial scene with a startling mixture of the vulnerable and the robust. And in a short skirt-suit on stage alone, facing the audience, imitating Sharon Stone's memorable moment in Basic Instinct.
In a neat and cheeky visual pun, the costume designer chooses Calvin Klein (non-French and a bit yobbish) for prosecutor Walsingham; and Chanel (French and sophisticated) for Mary Stuart.
The script is constructed to set up counter-points to Mary within each of her scenes, each different.
Peter Hamilton Dyer delights as the intense, loyal, and ultimately weak secretary Claude Arno.
Paul Goodwin delivers the complex character Sir Amyas Paulet, who would not 'shipwreck his conscience' for Elizabeth I by murdering Mary with subtlety, elegance, and a hint of Neville Chamberlain.
Henry Luxemburg delivers Sir Thomas Gorge with a fine nuance for the character's shifting admiration, perhaps love, for Mary Stuart.
Chris Gilling gives a remarkable performance as Sir Francis Walsingham - allowing Sue Scott Davison to extract the maximum from Mary Stuart. His ability to suggest power, and a chilling sense of evil - while making that evil thrillingly sexy and attractive - gives the play its spice, and undercurrent of diseased morality.
Direction, by Guy Retallack, compels from the start. It's 90 minutes without a break, and not a second dulls. The play is consistently sharp, a true entertainment in the dramatic sense. Guy Retallack uses the stage, its walls, a stepladder, seats, the auditorium as his area of action - all without pretention or the feeling of theatrical contrivance.
Glyn Maxwell's script sparkles. There's no cliché, it's bright as a button. A weak spot is the part of Mary Stuart's trial performance in which the character crumbles, becomes emotional and a bit greetings-card in words - history can impose inconvenience on writers. But it's a small criticism in a script that grips from the start, and releases only when the last cards have been dealt.
Cast Credits (programme order): Mary Stuart - Sue Scott Davison. Claude Arno - Peter Hamilton Dyer. Sir Amyas Paulet - Paul Goodwin. Sir Thomas Gorge - Henry Luxemburg. Sir Francis Walsingham - Chris Gilling. All other parts played by the company.
Company Credits: Author - Glyn Maxwell. Director - Guy Retallack. Designer - Dora Schweitzer. Lighting Designer - Chris Corner. Composer - Chris Madin. Casting Director - Kay Magson. Stage Manager - Krista Ellen Gurney. Company - Lifeblood Theatre Company & Gilded Balloon Productions. Lifeblood Theatre Company Credits: Producer - Sue Scott Davison. Co-Producer - Chris Gilling. Project Manager - Chris Corner. PR - Paul Sullivan & Kim Morgan. Photography - Simon Pugh. Artwork - Alice O'Shea. Design & Print - Sam Oakley. Production Assistant - Chrissie Lewes. Representation - Micheline Steinberg Associates. Gilded Balloon Productions Credits: Artistic Director - Karen Koren. Business Manager - Tony Davey. Operations Manager - Ann Russell. General Manager - Mick Bateman. Head of Press - Fraser Smith. Production Manager - Marc Swanson, Scott Stoddart. Box Office Manager - Davis Jarman. Administrator - Jennifer Graham. Front Of House Manager - Neil Keay. Head of Lighting - Matt Townsend. Head of Sound - Simon Kasprowicz. Thanks to: Katherine Dow Blyton, William Harding, Alice O'Shea, Simon Pugh, Lupe Digital; Duke of Norfolk.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 12 Aug 04 / Gilded Balloon Cave 1
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
