A woman in a long dress stands in fog with dramatic clouds above and a bright beam of light shining down near her.

Prep School: Mary Said What She Said

Robert Wilson, Darryl Pinckney and Isabelle Huppert take on Mary, Queen of Scots – whose life and death have been mythologized in countless plays, movies, novels, operas in the 500 years since her death, both in depictions of her life story and as a villain in Elizabeth I’s life.

A brief history lesson: Mary was first in line to succeed Queen Elizabeth I of England (a Protestant) and considered by Catholics to be the legitimate sovereign. But when Mary fled from Scotland to England in 1568 after a tumultuous series of events (including the murder of her husband and her forced abdication in favor of her 1-year-old son), her cousin Elizabeth I took her presence as a threat and imprisoned her.

Mary spent 19 years in captivity — during which time she corresponded in code with her associates and supporters — before she was convicted of treason and beheaded at age 44 for her alleged role in a plot to have Elizabeth I murdered. (from NPR’s All Things Considered, 2023)

RELATED EVENTS
  • Thu Feb 27 – Sun Mar 2, 2025

Robert Wilson & Isabelle Huppert: Mary Said What She Said

  • Skirball Presents
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  • Wed Feb 26, 2025

Skirball Salon: Mary Stuart Onstage

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RICHARD SCHECHNER ON ROBERT WILSON

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Black and white close-up of a man in a suit, gazing thoughtfully to the side, with his hand resting near his mouth.
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SUSAN WOLFORD ON MARY STUART

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A woman with pale skin and brown hair in a pink, pearl-embellished Renaissance dress with a high white collar, standing against a blue background. She has a calm expression and holds her hands together at her waist.

OFFICE HOURS

Robert Wilson in conversation with Eugenio Refini (NYU).

GET INTO IT

GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY

Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.

  • Miguel Morey, Carmen Pardo Salgado, Robert Wilson (2003)
  • Franco Quadri, Franco Bertini, and Robert Stearns, Robert Wilson (1998)
  • Steven J. Reid, editor, The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots (2024)
  • Maria Shetsova, Robert Wilson (2007)
  • Mary Stuart, Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, vol. 1-2 (1848)

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Mary Said What She Said at the Barbican review

“This is no easy star vehicle – it’s a bold challenge to the great French actor’s technique, charisma and rigour and she rises to it.”

The Standard | May 11, 2024(opens in a new tab)

Isabelle Huppert: ‘It’s always a good thing when women talk’

Huppert is alone on stage. “I love it,” she says. “It’s scary sometimes a little bit when it starts, but once I am in it it’s wonderful.”

The Times | May 6, 2024(opens in a new tab)

EXTRA CREDIT

Mary Stuart was taught how to write in cipher at the age of 9. A series of 50+ letters from her years in captivity were only recently discovered and deciphered in 2023 by three amateur codebreakers – George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, and Satoshi Tomokiyo – who worked together to decipher a book’s worth of material. Learn more about their process here.

Mary’s final letter was protected with a “spiral lock” encryption, which is a 16th century technique of paper folding that has baffled scholars for centuries, and her technique was only recreated in 2021 by researchers at MIT. Read more about this process of encryption – one of the forebears for contemporary email encryption, which is much less time intensive and much less tangible.

You can watch the elaborate process in this reenactment of Mary Queen of Scots’ spiral lock – perhaps it will come in handy if you’ve got something that really needs encrypting?