It was the last drama premiere this Salzburg summer: On the Perner Island in Hallein, Burgtheater director Martin Kušej staged Schiller's “Maria Stuart” with Birgit Minichmayr, Bibiana Beglau and a strong ensemble.
Our premiere review:
Martin Kušej staged Friedrich Schiller's tragedy “Maria Stuart” for the Salzburg Festival.
Birgit Minichmayr impresses in the title role.
This co-production will be released on September 5th at the Vienna Burgtheater.
When they finally meet, the stage is empty for the first time that evening on the Perner Island in Hallein. Gone are the 30 men, those mostly naked extras who are such an important element in this “Maria Stuart” of the Salzburg Festival. When the spotlights that Annette Murschetz installed on the three sides of the stage go out: as consistently as these light sources are connected to one another, the room is so hopeless, it is lit up so ruthlessly.
But when it comes to a conversation between Maria Stuart, the Scottish Queen who fled to England, and her cousin Elisabeth, who had her imprisoned for fear, only a lightbulb glows over the scene.
And their pendulum is more than a symbol for the swaying back and forth of the quarrel between the monarchs.
It recalls the beginning, when the severed skull of the Stuart swings over the heads of the people, anticipating the bitter end.
Martin Kušej was the artistic director of the Munich Residenztheater for eight years
Martin Kušej, director of the Bavarian State Theater for eight years and now director of the Vienna Burgtheater, organized this last drama premiere of the Salzburg summer.
His staging of Friedrich Schiller's tragedy, which premiered in 1800, premiered on Saturday and was applauded after two hours and 40 minutes (no break).
It is a - a little too - long, but intense and cleverly built evening that lives not least from the class of the ensemble, including six alumni of the Residenztheater.
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Maria's opponent: Queen Elisabeth (Bibiana Beglau).
© Matthias Horn / Salzburg Festival
In the glaring light, hard separating the scenes by fading in and out, as he likes, Kušej dissects the mechanisms of power.
May two women be at the top by chance, the state is male: With the 30 extras, the director finds a strong, changeable image.
These guys, almost always present, come together in umpteen formations and tell a lot: They stand for the state apparatus, their nakedness heralds its potency.
They are a men's society and a labyrinth in which the individual can get lost, get lost, but also hide: When Elisabeth signed the death sentence for Maria, but was unable to pass it on for execution, Bibiana Beglau hides behind this state order, calls from there to the equally overwhelmed Davison: "Do what your office is."
Strong ensemble performance in "Maria Stuart"
Whether Tim Werths in this role, Oliver Nägele as level-headed Shrewsbury, Rainer Galke as the strict but fair jailer of the Stuart, Norman Hacker, who gives the agitator Burleigh the penetrance of a vacuum cleaner representative, Itay Tiran and Franz Pätzold as Maria fanboys Leicester and Mortimer ( The former will drown his betrayal in alcohol, the latter will save his freedom through suicide): The acting qualities are impressive. The pulsating center is of course Beglau and Birgit Minichmayr. While the Beglau primarily tells the physical story of Elisabeth's torments, Minichmayr creates Maria from Schiller's text, which she makes her own with great understanding.
Finally, Kušej exposes the state apparatus as a self-sustaining system. If he shows the extras with oxygen masks at the beginning, the pumping of a ventilator roars in the falling darkness of the end. The power structures live on.
