Lines are very definitely not, tweak at your peril, you’ll find you’re pulling on a thread that could unravel all your plans.

Various solutions were found to represent some large moments and staging problems which are quite baldly stated in the text.

The rhythm and language of the dialogue is contemporary Scots. Apart from Joan and Henry V in The Key Will Keep the Lock and Margaret in The True Mirror, all characters are speaking Scots.

Acknowledgements

A work on this scale requires a list of itemised gratitude that would run to another three volumes. However, there are some thank-yous which simply have to be immortalised in print.

For not only encouraging the original idea but taking the reckless step of commissioning all three plays at once, a huge thank-you to Vicky Featherstone.

For endless patience, quiet wisdom and encouragement and nurturing of all kinds, George Aza-Selinger.

For many things but chiefly for the solid help that actually kept me afloat at the moment of greatest need, Caroline Newall.

For providing the best writing environment I have ever had, huge thanks to Julian Forrester and all the staff at Cove Park, these plays could not have been completed in this timescale without that refuge.

To Linda McLean and John Ferris for providing me with another calm refuge at times of personal and professional need, as well as the best support friends could ever offer an overwrought writer.

To Dr Michael Brown and Dr Christine McGladdery for their tolerance of every liberty I’ve taken with ‘their’ kings and all their help and support.

To the most amazing company of actors I could ever have imagined, they shaped this text, you did the impossible, guys, and you did it with style – Cameron Barnes, Daniel Cahill, Ali Craig, Blythe Duff, Nick Elliott, Peter Forbes, Andrew Fraser Sofie Gråbøl, Sarah Higgins, Stephanie Hyam, Gordon Kennedy, Alasdair Macrae, David Mara, Beth Marshall, James McArdle, Rona Morison, Andrew Rothney, Mark Rowley, Jamie Sives and Fiona Wood.

A massive thank-you also goes to the actors who contributed to three development workshops, one for each play. Emun Elliott, Lex Shrapnel, Billy Riddoch, Phil Cairns, Lorraine McIntosh, Karen Fishwick, Jessica Clark, Rodney Matthew, Keith McPherson, Liam Brennan, Deirdre Davis, Ruth Milne, James Rottger, Joanne McGuinness, Joe McFadden, Sam Heughan, Stuart Martin and Emma Hamilton.

Everyone in the huge list of creatives, stage management, administrators, publicity, casting and support of all kinds who brought their talent and more to the monumental task of these plays’ first production.

And a thank-you too large to ever be adequately expressed anywhere, in any way, to Laurie Sansom. This was insane and it was impossible. Thank you for embracing the insanity. Thank you for making it work.

R.M.

The James Plays comprising James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock, James II: Day of the Innocents, and James III: The True Mirror were revived at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh on 6 February 2016, prior to a UK and international tour.

The James Plays is a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain.