Suzannah Lipscomb & Kate Williams: to Kill a Queen

Suzannah Lipscomb and Kate Williams are back at the Theatre Royal on Monday 19 April 2027, their first Brighton date since their 2026 tour. They're returning to the stage with To Kill a Queen, a live show that works backwards from the fall of the axe at Fotheringhay Castle to the moment Elizabeth I signed her cousin's death warrant. It's a reverse-chronological look at the final years of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the woman who ordered her execution.

Drawing on the latest research, they trace espionage, treason and gender politics in the Tudor world. The talk runs through William Cecil's spy networks, Mary's defiant embroideries and the Babington Plot, and challenges how male historians have long pitted the two women against each other, reframing their choices as acts of courage and consequence. It's a chance to hear the story of two cousins and two queens told by two historians who know the period inside out.

Lipscomb is an historian, author, broadcaster and award-winning academic with a double first in BA History and a DPhil from Balliol College, Oxford, where she was a Jowett Senior Scholar. Williams is a history lecturer, writer and television presenter whose previous biographies include England's Mistress and Becoming Queen, and she also writes novels. They're both well-known for bringing history to a wider audience, and this show brings them together on stage to hash out one of the most famous rivalries in British history.

The venue is the Theatre Royal on New Road, one of the oldest theatres in the country, a Grade II* listed building that's been entertaining audiences for over 218 years. The show starts at 19:30, and tickets are £49.50 for Band A, £45.50 for Band B and £41.50 for Band C, all including fees.