SCOTNOTES Study Guides

Liz Lochhead’s MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
GOT HER HEAD CHOPPED OFF

Margery Palmer McCulloch

Published in: Paperback.
By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2000
Price: £5.95
ISBN 978-0-948877-39-1

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Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off is the best-known and most critically acclaimed of Liz Lochhead’s plays. Dramatising the religious and political history of Scotland from a particularly female point of view, it remains popular with audiences and with the author herself, who sees the work as “a metaphor for the Scots today”.

Margery Palmer McCulloch’s Scotnote provides a background to the history and to the dramatic presentation, as well as giving an overview of the modern context of the play, for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

CONTENTS

• Introduction
  1. The author
  2. Mary Stuart and her historical background
  3. Lochhead’s approach to Mary and her historical background
  4. A preliminary note on dramatic form and performance styles
  5. Lochhead’s approach to the dramatic presentation of Mary and her historical background
• The Play
  1. Act One
  2. Act Two
• Bibliography