One of my favourite names for a mocktail (like I ever have one…) is the Bloody Shame at Con Club, Altrincham – the gag being that it’s a Bloody Mary without alcohol…

Deviating for a second, my favourite ever name for a tribute band is R We Them…give it a second.

Bloody Mary’s (aka Mary Tudor) life seems to have been just that – a bloody shame.

And in this one-woman show, New-Yorker, Olivia Miller, brings her back to life to tell us just why…

Teen Queen Mary Tudor takes to the mic to rehab her so-called “bloody” image in a gleefully vicious stand-up special.
Mary tackles the drama every #queenager deals with: divorced parents, sibling rivalry and religious purges (…oops).
Join Mary’s court for a night of historical revisionism and bloody good comedy.

Bloody Mary – LIVE! is a feisty, one hour show which is part stand-up, part therapy session, part sassy redress of a chapter of history which largely consigned another woman to the sidelines.

In perhaps the first show of its kind since Bill and Ted lined up a series of guests from the past on their high school stage, the daughter of the infamous Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary, bemoans the lack of recognition for her status of the first Queen of England – “Mary I” and all she had to endure (I blame the parents – well one of them).

This royal accolade in the history books being somewhat overshadowed by the burning of some 200 Protestants at the stake, in a bid to restore the Roman Catholic faith.

Hence the moniker ‘Bloody Mary’.

Where’s Hitler’s nickname? Genghis Khan’s? My father’s?

she yells. She has a point.

On this rather grisly, murdery topic, Mary delights in telling us exactly what a burning body looks like after inviting audience members to speculate.

A kebab?

one game audience member generously offers up, shortly before admitting to being a vegetarian when invited to elaborate on texture and smell.

Such audience participation was encouraged and a large feature of the show. Our Mary’s quick wit worked well in the to and forths in response to her pitched questions after demanding a raise of hands to queries such as

“when was your first kiss and what was it like? (context Mary aged 2 being betrothed to Francois, Dauphin of France, who was also only 2 at the time),

“what’s the worse thing you’ve ever said to your mum?” (context telling her mum, Catherine of Aragon, she hated her, never to see her again as her father had her exiled until her death,

“whose parents are divorced?”…I mean with Henry VIII as yer dad, that one speaks for itself.

It was hard to believe the award-winning show was just 60 minutes.

The very charismatic Olivia Miller, never once breaking character, took us on a very human journey, balancing edgy, ‘hit you between the eyes’ comedy (both scripted and improvised) and, pathos.

Taking no prisoners, so to speak, strong themes such as life, death, religion, misogny, abuse and murder were interwoven through a tale of events 500 years ago, but brought bang into the present to a gathered audience, in a theatre space in Manchester in 2024.

A horrible history indeed, but a bloody good show.

For more details and tickets for the chance to see the final show tonight, 5 April, visit https://homemcr.org/production/bloody-mary-live/.