Mary Stuart

Director Inese Mičule, while retaining Rainis’s translation, sets the conflicts in Schiller’s play Mary Stuart in the context of today’s time and society. “For me, this will be a play about power, gender, political responsibility, public image, and how accidental our place in the hierarchy of power really is.” The director intends to turn the conflict between Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I into a psychological and political duel between two women, rather than merely a historical drama. One of the production’s central questions is: Is it possible to say which of the two queens is free? Will the two women be able to see one another as people, rather than merely as political functions? In Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy Mary Stuart (1801), the historical basis of the conflict is Queen Elizabeth I of England’s (1533–1603) consolidation of power in the latter half of the 16th century, as she gathered supporters closely around her and moved against political rivals. The play begins after the trial has taken place and Mary Stuart (1542–1587) has been sentenced to death. In the play, Schiller brings the two rivals, who are also relatives, face to face. Historically, this never happened. Mary Stuart hoped that Elizabeth I would nevertheless free her, but in 1587 she was executed by beheading.