The James Plays
Rona Munro
THE JAMES PLAYS
NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Introduction by Rona Munro
Acknowledgements
Original Production Details
James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock
James II: Day of the Innocents
James III: The True Mirror
About the Author
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Introduction
Rona Munro
The process of writing these plays has been long (though not as long as you might suppose) and, at the time of writing this introduction, it’s ongoing. I am currently in rehearsal with the most extraordinary company of actors in the longest, most challenging, most terrifying and most exhilarating rehearsal process I have ever experienced.
I’ve long had the ambition to write on this scale. However, having the ambition is one thing. You also need the ability and the opportunity. 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.
If you enjoy these plays at all you should understand that I owe a debt to a series of theatre companies and other organisations who support and develop new writing for the stage and who have allowed me to grow to the point where I felt able to go for the big dream.
These plays are set within a period of Scottish history which is virtually unknown. I feel a certain responsibility, therefore, to alert you to the fact that some small liberties have been taken with known events in order to serve our stories.
Certain characters represent amalgamations of many characters or stand for political forces within Scotland. Certain events have had their timelines altered to maximise the drama.
However, as far as narrative imperatives allow, I’ve followed history and used primary sources.
We cannot know the character and thoughts of these dead kings and queens and long-gone Scots. We can speculate a whole series of possibilities from the few hard facts we can rely on, the slim historical evidence of their actions. However, I feel robustly certain that whatever their thoughts and feelings might have been, human nature is exactly the same now as it was then. Only culture and circumstances have changed.
I’ve translated and used words from the fifteenth century within the plays, so you’ll read songs with lyrics taken from The Kingis Quair, the love poem written by James I himself. There are versions of work by the wonderful poet Robert Henryson and of anonymous authors whose words have still come down to us.
If any ghosts are offended by my appropriation and free interpretation of their work, I hope they’ll still appreciate the wider publicity.
In the delightful possibility that you are reading these plays with the view to giving them further production, here are some guidelines and warnings. All stage directions are suggestions only, you can take enormous liberties with those and emerge unscathed.