Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off E-Book

Liz Lochhead

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

A modern classic about the bitter rivalry between Mary, Queen of Scots, and her cousin and fellow ruler, Elizabeth I of England - retold by Scotland's most popular playwright. 'Once upon a time, there were twa queens on the wan green island, and the wan green island was split inty twa kingdoms. But no equal kingdoms...' Mary and Elizabeth are two women with much in common, but more that sets them apart. Following the death of her husband, the Dauphin of France, the beautiful, and staunchly Catholic Mary Stuart has returned from France to rule Scotland, a country she neither knows nor understands. Ill-prepared to rule in her own right, Mary has failed to learn what her protestant cousin, Elizabeth Tudor, knows only too well - that a queen must rule with her head, not her heart. All too soon the stage is set for a deadly endgame in which there can only be one winner and one queen on the one green island. Liz Lochhead's play Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off is presented in a distinctive cabaret style, with much of the dialogue in the 'Braid Scots' vernacular. It was first performed by the Communicado Theatre Company at the Lyceum Studio Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 1987. This revised version was published alongside the revival by the National Theatre of Scotland, which toured in 2009. Also included is a new introduction by the author.

Leseprobe

Liz Lochhead

MARYQUEEN OF SCOTSGOT HER HEADCHOPPED OFF

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

Original Production

Dedication

Characters

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

In the autumn of 1984 I was in Portree on the Isle of Skye doing some poetry readings for pupils in the high school. After the bell went at four, I was heading for the lonely B&B and my library book when I saw, in the butcher’s window, a poster advertising Communicado Theatre Company’s production of Carmen, the Play. Couldn’t believe my luck. It was on tonight!

They were my pals too. Gerry Mulgrew had, earlier that year, played (brilliantly and all too convincingly) a talking dog in a musical touring piece I’d written for Wildcat Theatre Company called Same Difference. He served as both chorus and narrator, Toby Dug, complete with saxophone, talking, rapping, relating directly to us. The audience loved him, and so did I.

That spring, as we’d rehearsed, every tea break had found him reading Prosper Merimée’s novel or deep in big historical tomes on the Spanish Civil War, because his Carmen, planned for his own burgeoning company, was to be set then, with the eponymous gypsy crossing back and forth across the lines, loyal only to her own survival and the flame of her passion for Don Jose, the Man in the Suit of Lights.