Mary Stuart review, Almeida

At the beginning of Robert Icke's Mary Stuart, two queens, each with a claim to the English throne, take the stage at The Almeida and toss a coin to decide who will play Elizabeth I for that performance. Primacy has been decided on a gamble - a whim of fate. Within seconds we are in1567. The actor who is Elizabeth is circled by courtiers telling her to punish her conniving Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, formerly Mary Queen of Scots. Mary has been implicated in an assassination plot against her Protestant kin. On the other side of a beautifully-lit revolving stage the actor playing Mary is stripped of her finery. A woman undone by love, she has been in custody for 18 years. Now she's fighting for her life.

What follows is three hours of riveting historical skullduggery. Did Mary Stuart mastermind a plot to kill Elizabeth, or was she framed by Elizabeth's senior management team? Icke has remastered Friedrich Schiller's original script so it's true to the story, but feels distinctly modern.  The staging plays with issues of gender. Everyone in power wears a trouser suit. The women's are velvet. The emphasis however, is politics. Mary may appeal to Elizabeth as a sister and a cousin, but it's not her sex or her kinship that's stopping Elizabeth from signing the death warrant. It's fear of being labelled a tyrant.

In this afternoon's performance Juliet Stevenson was a terrific, troubled, Elizabeth I, and Lia Williams was nimble and dazzling as the ferociously passionate Mary Stuart. It was impossible to imagine the roles reversed. The men in the cast are also superb including Rudi Dharmalingam as a feisty Mortimer; John Light, as a brooding, untrustworthy, Leicester; and Vincent Franklin, as a creepily single-minded Burleigh.  Fans of Carmen Munroe will be delighted that she plays Kennedy, Mary Stuart's nurse.

In conclusion: Mary Stuart is a great play for the 2016 festive season - it's about religious fundamentalism, queens' speeches, family tensions, political conspiracies, prison riot, fake truth, the braying of the mob at the gate, letter hacking, death plots, and the breakdown of decency as we know it. Grab a ticket if you can.

Mary Stuart is at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA   Run ends 21 January