Mary S
tuart
Direction
Anne Lenk
Set Design
Judith Oswald
Light Design
Cornelia Gloth
Costume Design
Sibylle Wallum
music
Camill Jammal
Dramaturgy
David Heiligers
With
Julia Windischbauer (Elizabeth, Queen of England)
Franziska Machens (Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland)
Enno Trebs (Lord Burleigh)
Alexander Khuon (Earl of Leicester)
Jörg Pose (Earl of Shrewsbury)
Caner Sunar (Earl of Aubespine)
Paul Grill (Amias Paulet, Mary's warder)
Jeremy Mockridge (Mortimer, Paulet's nephew)
Caner Sunar (Wilhelm Davison, state secretary)
Jeremy Mockridge (Melvil, Mary's friend from back in the days)
"Yes, of course! You can do theatre even under the most adverse conditions,” says Berliner Zeitung about Anne Lenk's production, describing the pink pandemic-compatible set that Judith Oswald designed here for Schiller's queen drama. Lenk, who was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen with her staging of “Der Menschenfeind” in 2020, makes the classic play about morality and power politics shine with her strong ensemble.
Mary Stuart, the Catholic Queen of Scotland, has fled from her people, who accuse her of murdering her husband. In England, she hopes to obtain political asylum from her cousin, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. At the same time, however, she lays claim to the crown, as she considers herself to be its rightful heir. She is captured and imprisoned, and rescue attempts by young liberators fail. But Mary’s brilliance shines on from her dungeon: she knows she can count on her dedicated supporters and the loyalty of France. After several thwarted attempts to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, for which Mary is blamed, she is sentenced to execution. Opinions differ among Elizabeth’s advisors, and an attempt at reconciliation in the form of a meeting between the two queens fails spectacularly. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitates to sign the death sentence and fears that the outcome will be a duel without a victor.
Friedrich Schiller’s Maria Stuart is an intrigue involving politics, religion, love and power – a web in which all its characters are inescapably caught. It paints a tableau of powerful people shunning responsibility and choking on their positions. And he shows them as deeply human characters who, through their action or non-action, are continually thrown back on themselves – lonely, isolated and unfree. As Sartre says: "Man is condemned to freedom. Because once he is thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."
Deutsches Theater, Berlin, Germany, Premiere 2020
in German with English subtitles
duration 2:15h
January 26th, 2021, 7pm (available until midnight) on thalia-theater.de/en/lessingtage
