Rona Munro continues her cycle of plays about Scotland's medieval monarchs with a stifling, tightly-drawn 90 minute drama in which the woman herself barely speaks.
Instead - as she was in her lifetime - Mary Queen of Scots is spoken about; by her anguished, stalwart advisor James Melville (Douglas Henshall) who knows her well, and household servants Thompson (Brian Vernel) and Agnes (Rona Morison) who cleave more towards John Knox's misogynistic trumpet against 'the monstrous regiment of women.'
Set in a dark-panelled Holyrood Palace, Roxana Silbert's austere production hinges on harrowing issues of rape and consent surrounding the events of 1567 - when Mary's husband Lord Darnley is murdered and months later she marries the suspect; the Earl of Bothwell.
While hardline Agnes - and most of Scotland - revile Mary as a murdering whore, a Catholic unfit to rule Protestant Scotland, faithful Melville has a different version; of a 'motherless bairn' whose life has been a hostage to historical fortune, married to a French king as a teen, returning to rule a country she barely knew when he dies, displaying poor judement in trusting power-hungry manipulative men.
Unlike her cousin Queen Elizabeth, she rescinds her power by marrying.
Melville harrowingly describes to his sceptical audience how she was abducted and raped by Bothwell; the marriage her desperate way to retain dignity. But it's forced a constitutional crisis and plot to put her baby son James on the throne, and he must wrestle with telling the truth or sacrificing it for the good of Scotland.
Monro playfully raises important points about male power and the disbelieving and silencing of women - both historically and today.
At one point the feisty Agnes is told to 'whisht,' before protesting that she hasn't spoken for 10 minutes. And at the end an angry, outraged female chorus erupt onto the stage.
It's a rare burst of energy in a protracted, dialogue heavy, static but well acted drama whose reversals feel slightly pat. You can't help feel that it would be better viewed as part of a cycle of plays.
Mary runs at Hampstead Theatre until November 26. https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/
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