Whatever David Starkey may say about the feminisation of history, your average historical drama is a male-centred affair. That's why Liz Lochhead's 1987 classic stands out. It isn't merely that, in Mary and Elizabeth, she fields two regal women protagonists - after all, Schiller got there first in 1800 with Mary Stuart - it is that she sets loose a distinctively female sensibility on this tragedy about the rival queens of Scotland and England.
In Alison Peebles's glamorous in-the-round production for the National Theatre of Scotland, this is a story governed not only by the demands of realpolitik, but by the passions of two women whose libidos have the power to shape history. In England, we have Angela Darcy's Elizabeth, all high bosom and explosive red hair; a woman as gifted in the art of strategy as she is prone to jealousy. Her role as the virgin queen is more about public image than private practice. Yet despite her willingness to act in the cold-blooded interests of the state, she is not without compassion.
In Scotland, Jo Freer's tall and elegant Mary carries herself with an Audrey Hepburn-like grace, choosing her husband for expediency and her companions for pleasure. In a state of continual opposition - being female, French and Catholic in a country governed by male, Scottish protestants - she is as skilled at diplomacy as she is vulnerable. Lochhead traces today's sectarianism and national hang-ups back to the 16th century, countering such repressive forces with a ribald female energy.
The same actors are on equally ebullient form in Our Teacher's a Troll, a funny and frightening daytime show by Dennis Kelly, in which a terrifyingly ugly headmaster all but quashes the pupils' sense of rebellion. A celebration of naughtiness and questioning, it's a raucous, skin-crawling treat.
