Historical drama is one of the hardest genres for a dramatist to pull off. Glyn Maxwell doesn't succeed here, but he has a jolly good stab at it. His play details the final year in the life of Mary Queen of Scots and has two curious features. The first is that it is written in verse. The second is that the play plods along for the first hour and then suddenly bursts into vivid theatrical life for its final 30 minutes, as though the playwright has just discovered his dramatic voice.
The early part of the evening details the Babington plot and the way wily Sir Francis Walsingham, minister to Queen Elizabeth, sets a trap for Mary. It is interesting enough, if dry, but it is when the trap is sprung that things dramatically improve. The scene in which Mary rides delightedly to the hounds, in the mistaken belief that those who come to hunt her down will be her liberators, is beautifully realised in Paul Garrington's muscular production. The trial scene is given maximum impact by having Mary as a forlorn figure alone on stage, her accusers represented only by voices. The finale in which the jailers are jailed is full of dramatic ironies, not least in its consideration of the way we build prisons around ourselves.
Throughout, the writing has the transparency of a pane of glass and sometimes a cracked beauty. There are sharp performances too, although Felicity Wren as Mary occasionally lapses into monotony because she is inclined to let the verse ride her rather than the other way round. But this is an encouraging find on the outer edges of the fringe; with the right support and guidance Maxwell may yet find his way to the very centre.
Until September 22. Box office: 020-7704 2001.
