Scottish Ballet takes the already rich story of the Scottish and English Queen’s personal and political power struggles and unapologetically puts jam on it.
A poised, liquid Roseanna Leney reigns supreme as Mary Stuart, gliding en pointe, while Harvey Littlefield stalks the stage on stilts as a haughty, troubled Elizabeth I. Spymaster Walsingham (Thomas Edwards) is a nimble poison arrow, zealously hellbent on gathering dirt on the Catholic enemy.
Sophia Laplane’s choreography is an amorphous thrill; Rizzio and Darnley (Javier Andreu and Evan Loudon) lock limbs in an aggressive then thirsty and sensual pas de deux, the corps swirls and fawns in the velvety, Blackadder pomp of the English court, where lords are literally leaping. An Older Elizabeth (Charlotta Öfverholm) dances an aching, Lynchian, deathbed fever dream of regret, guided by an agile jester in acid green.
Director James Bonas and Laplane collaborate to make a bold work much greater than the sum of its parts. Mikael Karlsson and Michael P Atkinson’s score shapeshifts between primal drumming to emotive strings and Anouar Brissel’s projections weave imaginatively around shadowy spider arms.
Unlike the Queens, who are only allowed a tender, fantasy dance of sisterhood here, the might of this piece comes when the collective strength of the various elements is harnessed, unleashing a surreal, symbolic and majestic delight.
Mary, Queen of Scots, Festival Theatre, until 17 Aug, various times