FEMMES FATALES
Two powerful women, Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, dominated 16th century Britain’s Golden Age with their battle for supremacy. A new production by the Sydney Theatre Company depicts their intriguing tale.
A new production by the Sydney Theatre Company depicts the tale of the original ‘ frenemies’, Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart.
They were the original ‘ frenemies’.* Elizabeth, Queen of England and Mary, Queen of Scots lived more than 400 years ago but their ‘friendship’ had more drama and plot twists than a modern-day soap opera, featuring imprisonment, excommunication, betrayals, rivalry, murders, kidnap, rape, a clash of religions and ultimately – the death of one by the other.
Protestant Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) lived largely in separate countries – Elizabeth in England, and Mary in France and Scotland. However, the two spent most of their lives in conflict – mainly over the right to rule. Although she had no shortage of suitors, Elizabeth chose never to marry, probably so she could (astutely) hold onto her throne. Mary, on the other hand, married twice – her second husband being her first husband’s likely murderer (a plot twist too improbable for most soaps).
Living hundreds of miles apart, centuries before efficient modes of transport, they are thought never to have met. Not even in 1587, when Queen Elizabeth, tired of her cousin’s troublesomeness, ordered and oversaw Mary’s beheading.
In Mary Stuart, Kate Mulvany’s new adaptation of the Elizabeth/ Mary story performed by the Sydney Theatre Company, the two women do meet for the purpose of dramatic effect (as they do in the current film version of the same events, Mary Queen of Scots, starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan). As an adaptation of an acclaimed 200-yearold play of the same name by German playwright Friedrich Schiller, Mulvany’s work explores the last weeks of Mary’s life.
For actor Caroline Brazier, who plays the doomed Mary, the role is the stuff of dreams. “Mary lived and died during the 16th century, but the juice of her life, her struggle, feels very contemporary. Kate’s play explores notions of gender, power, faith, grief, longing, loss, motherhood, how our choice of partner informs the course of our lives, or indeed in Elizabeth’s case – the choice not to become a wife and mother, what it is to be in exile, what it is to die for a principle.”
Helen Thomson, who plays Queen Elizabeth, concurs, pointing out that back in 1500s England, Elizabeth “worked a ferociously patriarchal system to her advantage. Even constructing an identity as the Virgin Queen was a clever political move,” she says, “because if she were to marry, her wealth and power would go to her husband. She ‘married’ England instead.”
Having most recently been seen in ABC TV’s Rake playing the Australian prime minister, Thomson is happy to see strong roles for women on the increase. “It’s rewarding to play roles that drive the action – not just augment the male story.”
Brazier, who also starred in Rake as Cleaver Greene’s long-suffering ex-wife, Wendy, is relishing the chance to play another complex female character. “I think Wendy resonated and I think Mary will resonate because there is something in the writing of these women that is true, and deeply complicated,” she says. “Yes, they can be strong at times, but they are also weak, and vain, and dishonest, and ambitious, and have terrible taste in men! They are exquisitely, humanly vulnerable.”
Playwright Kate Mulvany agrees: “These two women – Elizabeth and Mary – were utterly extraordinary humans. They were icons. They led incredible lives of passion, trauma, danger and politics.”
Did she find herself warming more to either woman as she crafted their timeless story for the stage?
“I empathised deeply with both of them,” Mulvany says. “I didn’t pick sides … I couldn’t. Their lives are too independently fascinating to choose one over the other. They are both addictively funny, smart, dangerous, powerful. And when their trajectories cross, it becomes explosive.”
This Sydney Theatre Company production of Mary Stuart boasts not only a female playwright and leads, its director Lee Lewis, costume designer, set designer and assistant director are also all female. In the age of #MeToo and in a climate of unequal pay for actors along gender lines, does this predominantly female environment signify things to come?
Brazier believes so: “The absurdity is that there are not more stories about women and by women – but I really do feel that is changing and I feel immensely proud to be a part of that change. The STC is more than doing its bit to make sure that half the population is given a creative voice, loud and clear! We are not a minority, we are half the world.”
Helen Thomson’s husband, David Roberts is also an actor, and Mary Stuart is the 20th play she has appeared in with the Sydney Theatre Company. “It is important that we stage plays and films with women at the helm in all departments, sharing these positions with the guys,” she says. “Because we are 50 per cent of the population, that’s what equality should look like.”
• Mary Stuart is performed by the STC from 5 February to 2 March. sydneytheatre.com.au
“They were icons. They led lives of passion, trauma, danger and politics.” PLAYWRIGHT KATE MULVANY