MARIA STUARDA

As one of my earliest full-scale Fringe productions, Donizetti’s 'Maria Stuarda’ (Mary Queen of Scots) posed a welcome experiment in finding what the audience would relate to in the plot, irrespective of its legend and historical time period. I wanted to avoid attributing any particular time period too strongly and the preconceptions that inevitably brings. This is where I began my practice of ‘boiling down’ a piece to find the core concerns that transcend time, place and class. I worked closely with the designer to find costumes that had a recognisably Tudor silhouette but essentially presented two powerful, beautiful, strong and fashionable women, fighting for legitimacy to lead. Taking on the additional role of set designer, I recognised ‘blood’ as a near obsession in the story and decided to make it central to the design; blood relations and bloody actions. Equally, I used a lot of wood in the set. I saw a beautiful homogeny in the wood of the trees which Mary finds freedom in when we first encounter her, the wood of The Cross which symbolises the most conflicting element of the two women’s characters, and the wood of the block on which Mary loses her head. I forged the trees into cross shapes and had blood oozing from the knots as a reflection of the blood of Jesus, blood spilled through holy war, and foreshadowing the inevitability of Mary’s end.