Originally written in 1800 by Friedrich Schiller, the play examines the personal struggle between two extraordinary women, one French, one English, both captive to the demands of sovereignty and both caught in a tumult of political and religious intrigue. "Scotland may be a savage nation, Lady, but the English wash their hands in blood," Mary Stuart proclaims in this extraordinary story exploring who is the rightful Queen of England: Mary Stuart or Elizabeth Tudor? The play was presented in this new version in 2009 by Mike Poulton following his successful staging of Schiller's Don Carlos for Sheffield/West End, hailed by the Daily Telegraph as "Magnificent . . . Mike Poulton's fleet and vivid translation . . . all the deftly plotted twists and turns of a thriller. You lean forward in your seat, desperate to discover what happens next . . . a masterpiece."