Summary
This solo performance features Mary, Queen of Scots, delivering a feverish stream-of-consciousness testimony on the eve of her beheading. Trapped in a stylized prison of light and fog, the doomed monarch recounts her youth in France, her tumultuous reign in Scotland, and her lifelong rivalry with Queen Elizabeth I.
Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM Feb 27, 2025, 7:30 PM
How to review, as a person with only middling skills in the language, this 86-paragraph monologue in rapid-fire French about the inner life of Mary, Queen of Scots?
I don’t know if I would necessarily recommend the show to anyone in good conscience, but that’s not to criticize it. Rather, I would say it’s just a particularly demanding piece of media to take in - even if you aren’t hanging on the subtitles, it’s still, like, intense and avant garde - and two glasses of wine beforehand, I concede, did not help. I found it striking, rewarding, but niche and exhausting.
And if that’s how I feel, I can only imagine how taxing it is for Isabelle Huppert. She’s 71 years old and utterly tireless, and I have a hard time imagining anyone else capturing Mary this vividly. She is brilliant.