This year, in an unprecedented co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain a new cycle of history plays is being presented.
They come under the umbrella title The James Plays, are written by award-winning playwright Rona Munro and directed by the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), Laurie Sansom.
Individually titled as The Key Will Keep the Lock, Day of the Innocents, and The True Mirror, the plays will bring to life three generations of Stewart Kings, James I, II and III, who ruled Scotland in the fifteenth century.
Each play can be viewed alone but together they create a complex and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood, shedding light on a period only dimly known of. Rona Munro, writer of The James Plays, says, “… I want people to experience them as I imagine them…as visceral, epic stories of people who thought and felt as we do. These loves, deaths, friendships and betrayals inform our present…”
The enterprise is supported by the Scottish Government‘s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund of which it is receiving £200,000. As Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, says, “The James Plays is a superb example of the work of the Expo Fund and the Scottish Government’s commitment to supporting Scottish cultural works. …I am proud the Expo Fund … will continue to ensure Edinburgh’s Festivals display the vibrant talent and creativity that exists in Scotland’s artistic and cultural life.”
The ensemble cast includes Cameron Barnes, Daniel Cahill, Sarah Higgins, Rona Morison, Mark Rowley, Fiona Wood along with rising star James McArdle. Interestingly, the two main female actors are both well known for playing detectives! Award-winning Scottish actor Blythe Duff for her role as Jackie Reid in Taggart and award-winning Danish actor Sofie Gråbøl for her role as Detective Inspector Sarah Lund in the BBC series The Killing. Fittingly, she will play Queen Margaret of Denmark.
The James Plays will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival in August 2014 and at the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London from September to October 2014.
At a time when Scotland is rubbing its eyes and looking around to find itself, searching through troubled past times to come to terms with its present while looking to its future, these plays could prove timeous.