Maria Stuart A tragedy in five acts

Andrea Breth's production of this fascinating episode from British royal history casts Corinna Kirchhoff and Elisabeth Orth as the rival queens. She presents a keenly drawn portrayal of a psychological conflict between two women, with a real feeling both for Schiller's language and for the work's modern political relevance.

The young Scottish queen, Mary Stuart has been accused of murdering her husband and forced to leave the country and seek refuge in England, the realm of her rival, Elizabeth. It would be hard to imagine two women more different than those at the pulsating core of this drama. Elizabeth, the virgin queen, has sacrificed femininity for office. Mary, driven by her emotions, has murdered her husband and placed one of the conspirators beside her on the throne. The contrast includes their politics as well. Elizabeth fought for the Reformation whilst Mary placed her faith in the cohesive political strength of the Counter-Reformation. Their one meeting ends in a fiasco. Elizabeth humiliates Mary, provoking her into losing all self-control and accusing the Queen of England of having debased the English throne. Opportunist intriguers and guardians of the interests of state set the machinery of execution in motion. Finally, Elizabeth signs Mary's death warrant. Schiller closes the play with Mary morally the winner and Elisabeth as an immensely lonely figure.

"At least once every day one finds oneself dealing with the power of some people and the weakness of others.I just can't get enough of the lad, Schiller, because what he tells me about all this is much more precise than what you get to hear from most dramatists today." (Andrea Breth in Die Zeit)

"It is a very political play in which Schiller used English history to examine right and wrong, morality and expediency and the compromises necessitated by power... It seems to be an old play but it is very, very modern." (Andrea Breth in The Guardian)