The James plays

The James Plays

The earliest written use of the word ‘fuck’ probably appears in the play ‘Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis’ by Sir David Lindsay, first performed in full in 1552.  Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Lindsay was Scottish.  Rona Munro, in her new plays about the first three James, Monarchs of Scotland, obviously assumed that it was in common currency in the 1400s too, so that at times the dialogue on stage in these plays reminds one of the standoffs that occur between rival Celtic and Rangers fans at an Old Firm game.

One of the lines which has become famous is uttered by Margaret, Princess of Denmark, in trying to hold things together at the end of James III.  ‘The trouble with you Scots is that you’ve got fuck all except attitude.’  And there is certainly plenty of attitude on stage, in fistfuls and often fisticuffs.  But at the end of all this, are the plays any good?

We saw James III first, were unable to see James II (which most critics, and certainly friends in Edinburgh thought was the weakest), and finished off with James I.  In James III, the King, tautly and edgily played by Jamie Sives was an excellent foil for the undoubted star of the show, Sofie Grȧbøl, the Danish actress with an impressive curriculum vitae.  Sofie is best known to English audiences as Detective Sarah Lund from ‘The Killing’, where she usually ventures into dark buildings armed only with a Faroe Island sweater and jeans.  In James III however she is exquisitely dressed, and both her appearance and acting are regal and dominating.  In fact her diction and her English is so perfect that I found myself wanting to hear her to speak with more of a Danish accent!  Halfway through the first act of James III (subtitled The True Mirror) I was unsure how it was that the Scottish nobles hadn’t managed to get rid of James already, with his unsufferable and unrealistic ideas, together with a complete absence of funds in the privy purse to achieve them.  But as in Hamlet, one can’t end the play too early.  When Hamlet catches Claudius at prayer, he is able to kill him easily, but fails to do so for another two hours; and so we have to plod on until eventually James exits stage front right with his paramour and a bit of gratuitous male nudity.  Hamlet is a good play to keep in mind.  The machinations of Claudius have nothing on some of the Scots kings and nobles...

James III is also, probably intentionally, the funnier play.  Because of his apparent devotion to the arts, there is much more music, expertly provided by a band on stage (Red Hot Chilli Pipers take a bow), and a remarkably apposite and enjoyable version of ‘Don’t you want me baby’ by the Human League is a highlight, together with well-executed dancing from the ensemble.  Much fun can be had with James’ lamentations that all Margaret has brought with her as a dowry from Denmark is the Orkney and Shetland Isles.  ‘They’re very beautiful’ says Margaret, ‘You should get your Navy to take you there sometime.’  ‘When I want to see a bunch of Danish castoffs shagging their livestock and making bootees out of herring skins I’ll be straight up there’ retorts James.

James I (subtitled The Key Will Keep the Lock) is darker, and I missed the band, though there is some music.  There is an overlong scene in the King’s bed in Act II, which would have benefited from some editorial cutting, or at least honing.  The cast does not seem to be as strong either.  James McArdle, as James I, has a disconcerting habit of pausing for dramatic effect, but in a way which makes one feel that unfortunately he has forgotten his lines.  But he does at least make a transition from timid prisoner of the English to regal status.  Stephanie Hyam, Queen Joan, is undoubtedly pretty, but her voice does not carry further than the first ten rows.  Do Directors sit at the back in rehearsals to assess diction and enunciation these days?  One wonders.

There is an enormous dramatic opportunity which Rona Munro has not missed for James I to make a statement about Scotland and the quintessence of being Scottish.  He has emerged from the chrysalis of long term internment in England, seemingly at the wish of Henry V, to unite the Scots and to become a friend to England (a little known fact of English history is that Agincourt was not the be all and end all of skirmishes between France and England in the early fifteenth century, and the Scots were quite capable of joining with the French to fight their traditional enemy of England).  Plus cą change.  So James returns to Scotland, and bearing in mind that these plays were performed in Edinburgh, shortly before the vote on Independence, he delivers a stirring speech which must have had them cheering to the rafters in Scotland.  At the National Theatre in London it seemed to be absorbed, just like Queen Joan’s diction, about halfway back in the Olivier Theatre’s comfortable padded seats.

There is much more than narrow Nationalism in the plays however.  The central theme is Kingship, and its use and abuse.  How to be a King is a recurring theme from Sophocles to Shakespeare.  The Key Will Keep the Lock refers to security and the rule of law which James is keen to implement.  James I gets it mostly right, but makes fatal errors.  James III never gets it right, but fortunately has Margaret to pick up the pieces.  There is something to enjoy in all this, especially James III, but Scottish ‘attitude’, especially in James I seems to be portrayed in a torrent of ‘fucking’.  Restraint is an excellent and too little used strategy.  In John Cleese’s famous sketch, where as Pope he is interviewing Michelangelo, he eventually comes out in exasperation with ‘I ought to know: I am the head of the fucking Catholic church’.  And the effect is uproarious.

‘You praise the verve with which they write,

I’m with you there of course.

They use the snaffle and the curb all right

But where’s the bloody horse?’

RIP (Restitutum In Patria – Gie us back wir Country) Alex Salmond.

A review by Andrew McLeod (Scottish but wasn't entitled to vote)