★★★★★

“a work of rare ambition: visually striking, musically daring, dramatically urgent”

Scottish Ballet’s Mary, Queen of Scots opens with Elizabeth I illuminated in a pool of light as white petals fall — winter, the end of a life. On her deathbed, she recalls her cousin and rival, Mary. From the first image, this is a dance of power, rivalry, and survival.

Directors Sophie Laplane and James Bonas construct a narrative without words, weaving gesture, image, and movement into a tapestry of grief, betrayal, and destiny. Their choreography blends lyrical pointe work with physical, almost sculptural, contemporary movement. A simple set of shifting white walls, designed by Soutra Gilmour, traps and releases the dancers, creating psychological intensity one moment and expansive space the next.

The production is rich in visual symbolism. Cabinets of curiosities act as both hiding places and portals; walls rise and fall like barriers of state; shadows transform dancers into spiders weaving the webs of their lives. Anouar Brissel’s projections are beautifully mapped across surfaces, while Bonnie Beecher’s lighting design is poetic and inventive, carving images of power and fragility. Costumes, too, flow seamlessly with the dancers’ movement — never ornamental, always integral.

Laplane and Bonas’s sense of dramatic storytelling ensures the work never drifts into abstraction. They create tension between characters, then expand it into group action charged with psychological weight. Themes of duality echo throughout: two queens, two crowns, black and white, snow and feathers, mother and son, past and future. A striking black-and-white pas de deux. Nothing is ever simple. Darnley and Rizzio dance a brotherly duet that evolves into a bro-mantic, then passionate, encounter. Boys being “boys” — choices that lead to tragic ends.

The company dances with precision and unity, moving like a murmuration of starlings — fluid, synchronised, yet alive with individuality. The seriousness of the subject never excludes joy. Bursts of Scottish identity punctuate the movement: a Highland fling erupts into the pointe work, playful steps lighten sombre passages, and even a regal walk becomes a witty parallel stroll en pointe or a bourrée on the knees while walking a wheeled dog. These touches bring levity without breaking the intensity.

The score, composed by Michael P. Atkinson and Mikael Karlsson, is itself a pas de deux. Classical and traditional styles collide with contemporary soundscapes, reflecting the complex interplay between history and the present. Conducted by Martin Yates and played with clarity and power, the music gives the production its heartbeat.

Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeds not just as a retelling of history but as a work of metaphor and resonance. It conveys the inexpressible: the loneliness of power, the fragility of legacy, the impossibility of reconciling opposites. Black and white never blend into grey; they remain in stark, unresolved tension.

By the close, many threads are drawn together with impressive coherence. Elizabeth looks back on her life, while James — the future king — steps forward into his reign. It is an ending that is both inevitable and moving.

Scottish Ballet has created a work of rare ambition: visually striking, musically daring, dramatically urgent. Mary, Queen of Scots, balances symbolism with storytelling, history with humanity. It is dance-theatre of the highest order — and a triumph.

QUADROPHENIA, A MOD BALLET

Festival Theatre

★★★★

“This Quadrophenia is a feast for the eyes”

Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet, part of Sadler’s Wells On Tour, has reached Edinburgh. For fans of Pete Townshend and The Who; the album Quadrophenia (1973), and the film Quadrophenia (1979), this is welcome news. But make no mistake, Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet, while sharing much of the same material with its predecessors, is also quite different. Paradoxically, this most recent reimagining cannot really be appreciated unless you know the earlier works. How you feel about The Who’s hard hitting sound—and especially their lyrics—being omitted from this version is up to you. But should you need compensation, you will find it in the wonderful dancing, extraordinary design, and lovely orchestration. Last night’s audience at the Festival Theatre lapped it up with enthusiasm.

Quadrophenia has always been a piece about summing up the voices of the Mod generation. The 1960s marked the beginning of something new in post war Britain—a young demographic who had their own music, their own fashions, and crucially, money in their pockets to spend on these things. The Mods, and their arch rivals, the Rockers, took all these things to the dance floors, and then to the streets. Quadrophenia celebrates all this, but also emphasizes the confusion and dissociation that some felt in a shifting culture that defined itself by opposition. Opposition to their parents and their values, to the blue collar factory jobs, and the drabness that was Britain then, still struggling to emerge from the trauma of World War Two. The show captures the style and the energy of the Mods and Rockers in its dance, costumes, and elaborate stage projections. But in this version of the story, the edginess is muted, and good looks take precedence over protest. And another important theme, always bubbling below the surface of The Who’s music and lyrics, and the film of Quadrophenia, that of the fractured, schizophrenic self, is difficult to recognize in A Mod Ballet unless you know the earlier history.

Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet has assembled a fantastically talented group for this production. The team have extensive experience of the performing arts in ballet, musicals, and it shows. From director Rob Ashford, choreographer Paul Roberts and musical director and orchestrator Rachel Fuller to set designer Christopher Oram, video designer Yeastculture.org, and the costume design team of Paul Smith, Natalie Pryce and Hannah Teare, this is a seamless production that feels like a Broadway musical. It doesn’t hurt that many of the artists working on this show have also had extensive experience with working on rock concerts, and world class orchestras. There’s a distinct air of glamour surrounding the dancers on stage even as the muscular choreography breaks out a few moves not usually seen in ballet. The dancers themselves inhabit the constantly changing space with a mix of dance, and acting, even if they don’t speak. When they aren’t dancing, they’re sitting in diners, drinking coffee, or even, in a brilliantly choreographed scene, being part of a crowded train carriage during the rush hour. Every detail of the period is captured; it’s lit to great advantage by lighting designer Fabiana Piccioli. This Quadrophenia is a feast for the eyes.

A Mod Ballet marks a new direction in the ongoing story of Quadrophenia. Whether it will succeed with audiences in the same way that The Who’s rock opera Tommy succeeded, for example, remains to be seen. But this show is sure to please dance enthusiasts everywhere, even if the narrative struggles to maintain equal clarity with the music and choreography.

Tag Archives: Festival Theatre

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

★★★★★

Edinburgh International Festival

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

Edinburgh International Festival

★★★★★

“a work of rare ambition: visually striking, musically daring, dramatically urgent”

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

Edinburgh International Festival

Reviewed on 16th August 2025 at Festival Theatre

by Louis Kavouras

Photography by Andy Ross

MARY

MARY

MARY

QUADROPHENIA, A MOD BALLET

★★★★

UK Tour

QUADROPHENIA, A MOD BALLET

Festival Theatre

★★★★

“This Quadrophenia is a feast for the eyes”