home All News open_in_new Full Article

Mary, Queen of Scots review – bold ballet brings the royal courts bang up to date

Festival theatre, EdinburghMary births a balloon and Elizabeth I towers on stilts in Sophie Laplane and James Bonas’s production about the queens’ distant relationshipThe second half of this show is much better than the first. It’s often the way in (loosely) narrative ballet. There’s all the scene-setting and character introductions before you can get to the guts of it – the relationships, the tension, the betrayal. Scottish Ballet’s new Mary, Queen of Scots, created by choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas, stumbles in the setup. Sometimes it’s just helpful to know where we are and who’s who. How would we know this scene where the men have porky prosthetic bellies protruding from their jackets is the French court, for example?The central conceit is that this is Mary’s story told through her cousin Elizabeth I’s eyes and the creators have set themselves a challenge there: in literature, one person can easily tell another’s story, but you can’t dance someone else’s da...


today 2 w. ago attach_file Politics

attach_file Economics
attach_file Society
attach_file Politics
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Sport
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Society
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics


ID: 2414651602
Add Watch Country

arrow_drop_down