And now you have to go out there and show them their King.

That’s what she’d want you to do now, to be King of Scots.

Don’t worry about what kind of king you’re going to be. Scotland herself doesn’t know what kind of nation she is half the time but I’ve learned that there’s no sense being frightened of what you don’t know. Time to walk out in the world again and find out.

As he hesitates.

Don’t be scared, Jamie. It’s not all on you. King or not, all you can do is what one wee soul can do. Just be one man and do your best. Scotland will do what Scotland does.

Love that. Trust that. Trust that and remember who you are.

JAMES. Yes.

ANNABELLA. On you go then, son. On you go. You can do it.

The Three Estates fill up again. They start to stamp, a thunderous noise that grows and grows as JAMIE walks out into the floor of the parliament.

One last deafening stamp.

Silence.

He looks at them, they look at him. Fade lights.

End.

About the Author

RONA MUNRO

Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television including the award-winning plays Iron (Traverse Theatre and Royal Court, London), Bold Girls (7:84 and Hampstead Theatre) and The Maiden Stone (Hampstead Theatre).

Other credits include Scuttlers for the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, The Last Witch for the Traverse Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival, Long Time Dead for Paines Plough and the Drum Theatre Plymouth, The Indian Boy and Little Eagles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Pandas for the Traverse in Edinburgh. She is the co-founder, with actress Fiona Knowles, of Scotland’s oldest continuously performing, small-scale touring theatre company, The Msfits. Their one-woman shows have toured every year since 1986.

Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab (directed by Antonia Bird) and BAFTA-nominated Bumping the Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for television and contributed to series including Casualty and Dr Who. Most recently, she wrote the screenplay for Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach and starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving.

She has contributed several radio plays to the Stanley Baxter Playhouse series on BBC Radio 4.

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

A Nick Hern Book

The James Plays first published in Great Britain as a paperback original in 2014 by Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain

This revised edition published in 2016

This ebook first published in 2016

The James Plays copyright © 2014, 2016 Rona Munro

Rona Munro has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover photograph by David Eustace

Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books, London