The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Playwright to bring Scottish history to life at online festival
Former Harris Academy pupil Ava Hickey has created her own digital show that will be shown as part of a new festival for emerging theatre creators.
The Four Marys is based around the characters and relationships of Mary Queen of Scots’ four ladies-in-waiting.
The Four Marys as a title will be familiar to anyone who saw the work of the late Eddie Small, who presented a play of the same name based on four Marys who helped to shape Dundee – Slessor, Brooksbank, Walker and Baxter.
Ava’s play takes us even further back in history.
“I feel like we see a lot about Mary Queen of Scots, and people don’t really even know that she had these four ladies-inwaiting, who were all called Mary,” Ava, 22, said.
“And they’re all really funny. They have their own sort of ways about them.”
The ladies-in-waiting travelled to France with Mary Queen of Scots when they were five years old and returned in their late teens.
Ava’s production happens in the days after they return to the UK.
“It’s a really modern piece, I kind of say it’s 16th Century Derry Girls,” she says, explaining that she was inspired by lots of female-led comedies that she watched over lockdown.
The idea came to Ava after she modelled an Elizabethan collar that a friend made for an art project.
After further research on the Marys, she wrote the show in just four days, and created the production with support from her friends and Chaya Gupta, who is helping with the sound.
Pre-recorded moments where the Marys interact are interspersed with live monologues that help the audience to learn more about each Mary. Also, Ava plays all the characters.
“I have to really completely shift because they’re all so different,” she says. “But it’s a really good challenge.”
Ava grew up in Dundee, and was a keen member of Dundee Schools Music Theatre, and Thomson-Leng Musical Society.
She decided to pursue a career in the theatre industry, and went to London to train in acting at Rose Bruford.
“I grew up going around all the different Dundee theatres,” she recalls.
“It was a really rich place to grow up and see theatre, as well as do it.”
The Four Marys will be available online from today until May 7.