The James Plays (NHB Modern Plays)

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James II: Day of the Innocents focuses on a young king (Andrew Rothney) plagued by nightmares from childhood and now in thrall to ambitious noblemen jostling for control of the country in his name; the puppet used to represent his childhood is apt for someone who is now a puppet king. A new French wife, Mary (Hyam again), gives James the courage to exert his authority, only for his best friend’s jealousy to signal another crisis. With an in demand Tiffany stepping down from the company following his production of teenage vampire story, Let The Right One In, Featherstone drafted in Graham McLaren, who had previously run Theatre Babel in Glasgow prior to working abroad for several years. An eight-year-old boy is crowned King of Scots. Soon James II is the prize in a vicious game between the country’s most powerful families, for whoever has the person of the boy king, controls the state. The play contains the performance of the trilogy from Andrew Still, playing Will Douglas, the King’s only friend as a child. His transformation from impish yet endearing child to something a whole lot more dangerous, all the while pressured by his horribly malevolent father, transcends his character, forming an argument about nationhood and the compromise between personal power and the good of the nation.

This was her starting point; one writer wondering how such an empathic and sensitive fellow writer could sink so low. “If we deprive people in history of their full, messy, contemporary humanity, it’s so easy for us to say, ‘Well, they did that, but we wouldn’t,’” she says. “There are racist slurs in that poem and their intention was as malevolent then as they would be today.” Rona Munro's vividly imagined historical cycle brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the tumultuous fifteenth century. An eight year old boy is crowned King of Scots. Soon James II is the prize in a vicious game between the country’s most powerful families, for whoever has the person of the boy king, controls the state. Seen through a child’s eyes, the Scottish court is a world of monsters with sharp teeth and long knives.James III: The True Mirror (****) stars Sofie Gråbøl – Sarah Lund of The Killing – and she is expertly cast as Queen Margaret, the Danish wife of James III (Jamie Sives from Game of Thrones, a charismatic presence), whose court was marked by cronyism and his neglectful rule as he pursued a hilariously hedonistic lifestyle, which included having a choir following him around. They have a sparky, passionate relationship and the onstage chemistry between Grabol and Sives ( pictured right by Robert Day) has real fizz. If you signed up within the Roku channel, follow the steps here: https://support.roku.com/article/208756478-how-do-i-manage-or-cancel-a-subscription

She is, therefore, as Duff explains, deeply resentful of “anybody who interrupts” her power and influence. Both the new, Moorish figures at court and the musicians and actors James has welcomed into the household appear to Phemy as a personal threat.

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Jon Bausor’s design creates an area that feels like a gunnery platform with a raised bank of audience set on stage mirroring the Olivier’s circle and make something halfway between traverse and in-the-round. It will also be used by the actors and the royal throne is set there, dominantly high, symbolically and physically. A huge sword, its point driven into the pavement, rises above the action: it represents the blade that is cited as the solution of dissension. It will run blood, burst into flame or flash brightly at times in the action. It’s an unfortunate fact that very few contemporary playwrights get the writing commissions that allow them to develop the ability to write on a large scale, still fewer get the opportunities thereafter. She is helped by wonderful acting (give or take the odd mumble) from a cast most of whom play more than one character in the trilogy– and while it's invidious to mention just a few in such an ensemble, the standout performances, in addition to those already mentioned, come from Sarah Higgins as Meg, given many funny lines as Joan's down-to-earth maid, and Peter Forbes as Balvenie, an earl who moves from sneaky coward in the first play to monstrous tyrant in the second. James II: Day of the Innocentsdepicts a violent royal playground from the perspective of the child King and his contemporaries, in a terrifying arena of sharp teeth and long knives. I’ve translated and used words from the 15th century within the plays, so you’ll read songs with lyrics taken from The King is Quair, the love poem written by James I himself.

Queen Margaret, married to James III is played by Sofie Gråbøl, most known to audiences as Sarah Lund in the Danish TV series, The Killing.Yet let's not get festivalitis, particularly likely to be contracted by audiences and critics who have sat through a long drama – this lasts nigh on nine hours – and need to justify the spending of their time. This is an ambitious enterprise, studded with vivacious episodes, sometimes delighting with the information it has quarried. Yet it rarely startles with its view of Scotland and politics. More surprisingly, from the author of the searing prison drama Iron, its dialogue is often flatly demotic. You get an arc and a roll from this trilogy, you get recurring themes, and a great and welcome line of mighty women. But you get little texture in the language, or psychological intricacy. The artists are, she thinks, a needless expense, while the new courtiers might lead to her being “ostracised and pushed out of the tree”. Please note this performance contains strong language, violent scenes , brief nudity and is not suitable for children. An age guide of 14+ is suggested. Running time - approx 2 hrs 30 mins, including one 20 minute interval.

Crowned King at aged six, James II is a puppet in a vicious game between Scotland's most powerful families. As he approaches adulthood, James must fight for his crown while the nightmares of his childhood torment him. She [Phemy] can speak French, but they speak Spanish. She’s thinking [of the Moors], ‘you can speak French as well, so why aren’t you speaking French?’” These are both words too often bandied around and rendered meaningless by bureaucrats and politicians, but here was a statement of intent, given flesh and blood significance by the company's progressive and outward-looking reach. The play’s interest in the public and private spheres of a King’s life is done wonderfully; a scene early on in which the Scottish clansmen literally sit at the foot of the King’s bed on his wedding night is both comic and troubling, and with the double effect of the theatre audience, some sitting behind the stage (as I was), viewing this act was a brilliant highlight. That’s a bit harsh, but perhaps Munro is suggesting a people as conflicted about their own place in the world in the 16 th century as the voting in the referendum suggests they still are today. The eponymous mirror of the final play (a novelty for the period) is a gift from the king to his wife, in which numerous characters confront images of themselves they hadn’t seen – older, younger, prettier, uglier than they had imagined; the effect for some is empowering, for others disabling, while the mirror held up to Scotland by the plays themselves may suggest different things to different Scots in the audience.

The True Mirror – the final play, costumed halfway to the 21st century – has one brilliant notion: the idea that a real mirror might turn everyone's notion of herself topsy-turvy. It features as its strong centre a Danish princess. Sofie Gråbøl – known to British TV audiences from The Killing but long established as a stage actor in Denmark – gives all you might have expected from her once she got out of that sweater. As Queen Margaret she is contained, gracious, betrayed and forceful. The focus of her nut-like face tightens a sprawling episode in which the period is indulgently undetermined. It is up to her towards the end of the evening to speak directly to today's audience and its concerns. When James III shimmies out of his penitent robes to show shiny scarlet trousers and a liking for a bloke in a leather skirt, Gråbøl takes over. She looks into the audience and proclaims: "All you have is attitude." Of course this is a political accusation: you're not going to follow through and convert feeling into principled action. Yet it is also ingratiating: praising a nation for bella figura. What could be more quintessentially Scottish than a compliment disguised as an aggression? The second play builds on these themes. James II is a boy King with a blemished face, who is manipulated by the cruel Lord Livingstone to sign off policies ‘in the King’s name’, a motif that haunts the play. The play expands on the first’s themes of psychological conflict, James’ night terrors providing intense if confusing dream sequences, giving the audience an insight into the King’s mind. Like the first play, ‘James II: Day of the Innocents’ shows a conflicted Scotland, one of virtue being eroded by corrupt and powerful noblemen. Once again the use of the physical is sublime; a scene in which the King’s family takes on the Douglases in a game of ball looks so natural, but must have been painstakingly prepared for.