Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061165
What struck me about the script on first reading was that that these two women, although miles apart in the geographical and the political sense were, in many ways, mirrors of each other. You see in these two photos above, that I had selected prior to meeting Josie for the first time, how it's the same subject in the photograph and yet they look in opposite directions. In this story, it's their opposing courts, with rivalrous politicians conspiring against each other, that keep the Queens apart. One can't help feeling that without these advisors conspiring to bring down the opposition, the Queens could actually have been friends, sisters even. Hence, the women in these photos look away from each other—both show A This is the premise from which I began to unravel a visual story with director Josie Rourke. Josie and writer Beau Willimon have theatre roots, and so do I—a great match. We wanted to take risks with the Production Design and not necessarily follow any particular rules or expectations of historical drama. It struck me that these two Queens are distant neighbours—one residing in Holyrood in Scotland and one residing in Hampton Court, London. Miles apart, yet it's as though they live next door to each other and that their lives are barely divided. As if their bedroom chambers have a party wall that both intimately connects their lives, and yet fatally divides them. A. THEMATIC IMAGE. B. ELIZABETH'S MOOD BOARD. C. MARY'S MOOD BOARD. B C