Maria Stuart (review)

Almost 202 years to the day that Friedrich Schiller premiered Maria Stuart at the Weimar Hoftheater (June 14, 1800), Ingmar Bergman and the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden (Dramaten) brought the drama to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a limited five-day performance run. The play, which dramatizes the final days of Maria Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) before her execution in 1587 as the culmination of an epic political, religious, and personal battle with her half sister Elizabeth I, was a curious but intriguing choice. Although representative of some of the greatest dramatic moments in German Theater, Schiller's plays are often weighted down by his philosophical musings, theoretical experiments, and bombastic prose. In short, Schiller's dramas seem perpetually in need of a director able to cut the excessive fat while retaining the theatrical greatness. Hence, the thought of Ingmar Bergman, the great choreographer of classical minimalism, confronting Schiller on the pragmatically-oriented United States stage brought a certain suspense to the event.

The set and costume designs were both spare and functional. Two thin gray walls, extending from floor to ceiling and angled to create a triangular portal, framed the set. Doors and a window in these walls allowed for entrances, exits, and evocative lighting. The backdrop consisted of three elements: a large royal crown suspended in space (acts 1 and 5), a flowing colored sky projected on a screen (the meeting of the queens in act 3), and a pale gray globe (news of the assassination attempt on Elizabeth). Upstage stairs allowed the actors to ascend, drawing the utmost effect from the stage design. The costumes were functionally symbolic: Elizabeth and retinue dressed in royal red; Maria and retinue dressed in drab gray.

This minimalism served a number of purposes. First, it evoked the spartan classicism of Schiller and Goethe but also served notice that Schiller's playscript would have to be pared down in order to fit the scenic frame. Schiller's original playscript devoted the entire first act to Maria in her prison cell at Castle Fotheringhay and the entire second act to Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey. This approach has its merits, primarily because it builds a great tension for the third act when the queens meet, but it is better suited for the reader than the spectator. Bergman's solution was to combine the first two acts into a series of short scenes, alternating a Maria scene with an Elizabeth scene. This made the complicated historical background more immediate and accessible, and quickened the pace of the production (which was under three hours, whereas traditional productions are usually close to four hours). The downside to this directorial stroke was the weakening of the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, the attendant conflict between sensuality and intellect, and the infusion of these issues into the battle between Maria and Elizabeth.

The minimalist set also highlighted the sophisticated choreography that Bergman always brings to his productions, yet it became even more important in Maria Stuart. On the one hand, this combination of minimalist set and extended choreography was pragmatic. The performance was in Swedish, and most of the audience was required to listen to the spoken dialogue through headphones to the simultaneous translation (the text was by Michael Feingold, which was spoken by Eva Engman, Tana Ross, Bjorn Olsson, and Klaus Hassel). Except for certain levels of tone, the actor's voice was completely lost to the spectator, and hence choreographed movement and gesture were at a premium. Bergman and Dramaten have spent years perfecting the art of synchronization, and Maria Stuart (their tenth production at BAM since 1988) was as good as one could imagine. On the other hand, the minimalist set and choreographic texture highlighted the dance of death between the two queens. Another innovation of the production was to have Maria (Pernilla August) and Elizabeth (Lena Endre) remain onstage throughout almost the entire production. Since the two...