"...Miss Walter is magnificent as the great English queen. She is erect and private, cruel, a cold shard of duty. And she is but one of the many powerful players in this fine version by Peter Oswald, directed by Phyllida Lloyd... 'The Stuart', as she is referred to repeatedly, is played with an almost swollen humanity by Janet McTeer. Busty, tall and blonde, this is Mary as a modern, almost metropolitan woman... One stylistic inconsistency is that the woman wear bustling, silken frocks while the men are attired in business suits. Yet this does not get in the eye's way. The acting so so damn good, the story so gripping. At almost three hours it is a long night, but an unforgettable one." The Daily Mail

"The astonishing thing about Friedrich von Schiller's Mary Stuart is how a play so riddled with historical falsehoods can feel so painstakingly true in performance... Phyllida Lloyd's magnificent new revival... recognise[s] that Schiller's figments of fancy are underpinned by a sure grasp of deep-running political processes. While he might appear to be adding, what he's actually doing is cutting to the bitter heart of the matter... Walter gives a masterclass in the art of acting from the neck up... Blonde and earthy by contrast, McTeer supplies a matchingly subtle and commanding performance..." The Daily Telegraph

"Share prices in Schiller have risen steeply in the past year. First, Michael Grandage conquered the West End with his thrilling production of Don Carlos. Now, as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, Grandage is the producer of Phyllida Lloyd's almost equally superb account of the German dramatist's great 1800 tragedy Mary Stuart. Using an impressively direct translation by Peter Oswald, this starkly staged interpretation succeeds better than any that I have seen in laying bare the drama's structural cunning and psychological acumen... Janet McTeer's wonderfully charismatic Mary... Harriet Walter's splendid Elizabeth... the cast does not have a weak link..." The Independent

"Schiller is suddenly sexy. After the West End success of Don Carlos we now have his romantic tragedy from 1800, given in a dashing new translation by Peter Oswald and a fine production by Phyllida Lloyd that has the narrative clarity and psychological acuity that marked her underrated Ring Cycle at English National Opera... Any production stands or falls by the casting of the central roles; and here they are in safe hands... I came out of this exhilarating production marvelling yet again at Schiller's ability to mix private and public worlds and his profound understanding of realpolitik. What you get from this production is not some obscure history lesson but a fast-moving narrative about the imprisoning effect of power..." The Guardian