The cast look a little stunned and very happy to see a sold out crowd. Tuning their instruments and bouncing around nervously as the audience arrive. This is confirmed by an ushers comment of ‘We don’t usually have crowds like this at the Annex’. The adrenaline high of a packed house carries though the rest of the show. Lead singer Rona Johnston slips effortlessly into character as our narrator Mary, Queen of Scots. The audience is encouraged from the outset to treat this as a gig. Clapping, cheering, whooping they are on side and up for it. The atmosphere is electric as the cast slam through punchy and stirring rock songs cataloguing Mary’s life. The particularly catchy lyric ‘Come on baby, go full throttle!’ will be stuck in your head for days.

The narrative of the piece is straightforwardly and uncompromisingly on Mary’s side, showing the events of her life through her eyes alone, backing up and justifying her actions at every turn. From her young life and the battles fought by strangers far away for her eventual hand in marriage, known historically as “the rough wooing”; through to her eventual betrayal at the hands of her once loyal supporters and advisors, the unsteady and disruptive influence of men on her life threads throughout. There is delicate and nuanced attention paid to her relationship (or rather, lack thereof) with Elizabeth, Queen of England, putting emphasis on the way their power was used and abused by the men around them. This climaxes  in the particularly poignant duet ‘Prison Song’.  All other players clear the stage for Johnstons Mary and Izzy Atkinson’s Elizabeth I to pour their hearts out in song. A reminder that these two formidable, fabled figures were human after all.

Ending on a standing ovation and enthusiastic sing along the band teased an upcoming Spotify release so keep your eyes on their socials!

Mary: A Gig Theatre Show has finished its run