National Theatre of Scotland

One of European theatre’s major plays, Schiller’s masterpiece hinges on a brilliantly imagined meeting between Mary Queen of Scots, focus of simmering Catholic dissent, and her cousin, Elizabeth, Queen of England, who has imprisoned her.

Isolated by their duplicitous male courtiers, the women collide headlong, each wrestling with the rank, ambition and destiny their births have bestowed, against a thrilling background of intrigue, plot and counter-plot.

Mary Stuart has probably done more than any other work to shape perceptions across continental Europe of Scotland and its history. One of Scotland’s leading contemporary playwrights, David Harrower (Knives in Hens, Blackbird) now tackles Mary Stuart in a major production directed by the Artistic Director of NTS.

A co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow