AustLit

'Stellar playwright Kate Mulvany and award-winning director Leticia Cáceres, two of Australia’s most accomplished artists, evoke the visceral, blood-soaked biosphere of the Amazon warrior women of Greek mythology. [...]

'This brutal, prescient and poetic new work has the wit, wry humour and gravitas we have come to expect from Kate Mulvany. It’s a play for our times, exploring themes of power – physical, sexual and psychological – and weaving parallel narratives as it moves seamlessly through time, style and gender, galloping towards an unexpected yet inevitable climax.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two queens. One crown.

'One of history’s great rivalries. A battle of wits, blood and broken hearts, now reinvented for the stage in majestic scale – the iconic tale of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England.

'Caroline Brazier (Dinner, ABC’s Rake) is Mary and Helen Thomson (The Harp in the South) is Elizabeth. Two flawed and fascinating women locked in a monumental, murderous feud. The stakes couldn’t be higher. An empire is in jeopardy. A queen’s life hangs in the balance.

'This world premiere production is a finely-tuned spectacle. Guided by award-winning director Lee Lewis, the creative team bring outstanding female perspective and wit to this new adaptation by Kate Mulvany (The Harp in the South). Opulent period-inspired costume and ingenious design reveal both the grandeur and danger of Elizabethan England.

'With plot twists and political intrigue, Mary Stuart transcends its 16th century origins. Based in historical truth, the story is punctuated with an extraordinary and pivotal imagined event; a face-to-face meeting between the two queens. They are each other’s equal – smart, strong, sexy and determined to survive. These heroines were our feminist forbears.

'Following an uprising, Mary has fled Scotland only to be imprisoned in England. Elizabeth feels threatened – Mary is younger, more beloved, and with her own claim to the throne.

'In a world dominated by double-crossing men, these remarkable monarchs scheme and struggle to hold on to power. Do they have more in common than they realise? In another life, another time, the cousins might have been friends. The question now is whether Elizabeth will release Mary – or execute her.' (Production summary)

'Lucky Flynn (Minchin) hasn’t spoken to his family in years. He’s broke, distant and damaged. He’s also a gifted pianist, whose talent for music is matched only by his talent for self-destruction. When he learns that his mother has only days left to live, Lucky sets off in a hire car to drive the 4000 kilometres from Sydney to Perth to say goodbye to her, taking with him his only cherished possession in the world – a battered and scarred upright piano. But what should have been a straightforward drive across the Nullarbor soon becomes a test of Lucky’s emotional fitness, when he (quite literally) runs into Meg (Milly Alcock), a hilarious, tough-as-nails teenager, who we soon discover has plenty of scars and secrets of her own.'

Source: Screen Australia.