According to JM Barrie, the Scots have a romantic secret. Once every day, they lean against the nearest object and think of Mary Queen of Scots. After seeing the Dundee Rep Ensemble’s production of Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, I can’t help but think it should be so. Mary led a dramatic and inspiring life that features little in popular culture, unlike her cousin Elizabeth I.

Ruling Scotland for twenty-four years, she was constantly accused of not being Catholic enough, or being too Catholic, of not being allied enough to England, or being too close to England, and always, always, of being too female for the job. In London, her cousin Elizabeth confronted similar prejudice. Yet despite being kindred spirits, Elizabeth and Mary were bound by volatile politics to be rivals, and despite having fates that were intertwined, were destined never to meet.

Liz Lochhead explores this tension in a play which endeavours to reach through the detritus of ages and connect the audience’s soul to the souls of the two historical women before them. The stage is littered with props from all ages: a crucifix abandoned in a skip, a 1950s car hung with a Union Jack, a Victorian schooldesk: all create a non-immersive lens through which we view history, burdened with the hindsight of all that has passed since. Thus we realise that current issues like Scottish nationhood, feminism and religion form a debate that has been raging for centuries. Nor does the play take sides in this debate- food for thought is thrown at us, we are left to interpret it ourselves.

The first half of the show could be better paced. Its rather hastily enacted exposition of political manoeuvring required my utmost concentration, not least because of my unfamiliarity with the strong Scots spoken by the cast. However, in the second half, when all the murders began, I was carried away by the thrill of events shown by a myriad of dramatic techniques - a deliberately contemporary take on what happened.

This could not have been achieved so eloquently without the beauty of Lochhead’s script. Packed with cultural references, witty one-liners, beautiful poetry and powerful monologues, it will make your evening worthwhile. Whether you are Scottish, English, or neither, this play is likely to get you leaning against the nearest object and lending a thought to that fascinating Queen of Scots.

Four Stars