Mary Stuart @ Artisphere

Artisphere is a new Venue that just opened in Rosslyn to house a community art exhibition space and a couple of Arlington based theatre companies. One of those companies is the Washington Shakespeare Company which I had heard about only in a guide book as having phenomenal to see Shakespeare on the cheap. And that part is definately true. All their saturday matinees are Pay-What-You-Can, but you can order the tix on line instead of having to wait in line for them. I suppose I had mentally set the bar pretty low as I had already seen productions at two other Shakespeare theatres in town (STC and Folgers) so I figured WSC would be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I was very wrong on that last point. This was an excellent production, well worth a full priced ticket (though I think I will stick to the cheaper ones given the number of shows I attend). The set was very spare and did some interesting things with chairs to make it quite a bit more than minimal. The actors were mostly phenomenal, and the pair of female leads were nothing short of outstanding.

I was not familiar with this story but it was very well told and interesting as a way to convey the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen. It realistically explains the politics, legal drama, and power implications of all the maneuvering being done by the principals. Very well done.