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The James Plays (NHB Modern Plays)

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It may be set in 15th century Scotland, yet many currents in contemporary culture have converged to make The James Plays – the glorious theatrical trilogy spearheading this year's Adelaide Festival – feel of the moment. There's the massive popularity of Game of Thrones, with its violent feudal intrigues and sex on tap. Or the recent resurgence of Scottish national pride, which saw the Scottish National Party annihilate all comers at the last British election. Even the appetite for binge-watching entire TV series online plays a part. The final chapter is the strongest and most free. James III is portrayed through the veneer of the sexual invective against him – an irresponsible, flamboyant and promiscuous man-boy, shirking the business of government, and refusing point-blank to change. If you signed up within an Apple iOS or Apple TV app, follow the steps here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039

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. One of the key reasons why theatregoers need to locate themselves in the particularities of the Scottish court circa 1503 is that, in racial terms, it was a very different place to the England and, later, Britain of slavery and empire. Please note this performance contains strong language, violent scenes, 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.Nevertheless, the actor continues, the history being depicted on stage occurs “before we [Scotland and England] were even joined”. Consequently, she says, it’s important for actors and audiences alike to “try and put ourselves in that world”. Not for the first time in this trilogy about male power, Munro puts a woman centre-stage, and Margaret's speech when she becomes Queen of Scots– rousingly delivered by Grabol– about why she loves her adopted homeland is a highlight. "I've seen the worst in you and you're murderous, miserable men... But the best in you pulls me above that."

James II becomes the prize in a vicious game between Scotland's most powerful families. Crowned when only six, abandoned by his mother and separated from his sisters, the child King is little more than a puppet. There is only one friend he can trust: William, the future Earl of Douglas. As James approaches adulthood in an ever more threatening world, he must fight to keep his tenuous grip on the crown while the nightmares of his childhood rise up once more. In 2014, it seemed the height of ambition when The James Plays appeared as an all-day marathon in a mighty three-way collaboration between the National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) and the Edinburgh international festival. But Munro’s sights were set higher still. Even then, she had in mind a sequence of box-set proportions. 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 While James gads about with lovers of both sexes and increasingly tries the patience of the influential lairds, Margaret is the real power behind the throne, balancing the books and placating parliament. Her quiet wisdom is a neat counterpoint to James's headstrong and childlike selfishness.There were community projects, works in progress and development work seemingly going on in every corner of the country, even as the company's flagship shows travelled the world. Despite all the slaughter and machismo, there's enough room for gentle cross-cultural comedy. Munro writes wonderful female parts, and scenes between James' highly-strung English bride (Rosemary Boyle) and her earthy Scottish lady-in-waiting (Sally Reid) showcase the play's Scottish humour – self-deprecating, full of gruff defiance, and mischievously energised by the current political climate. Where the play loses its dramatic power was in its attempt to capitalise on the psychological insights of the first two. Using the newly developed mirror, the characters attempt to come to terms with ‘who they really are’, but it doesn’t feel genuine enough, the characters sometimes resorting to platitudes that boil down to “it’s what inside that matters.” Malin Crépin gives a strong lead performance as Queen Margaret, weathering the storm that her husband has created in a regal and composed manner, using her position as a Danish outsider to comment on the state of Scotland both in a funny and poignant manner.

READ MORE: The Proclaimers: UK media like BBC are cutting anti-monarchy views from coverage after Queen's death At times it seemed as if a new NTS production was opening somewhere in some country or other every week. Playwright Rona Munro’s dialogue is firmly contemporary. Director Laurie Sansom pulls each successive play closer to our time – in the first, under traditional costumes, we get glances at modern shoes; by the third we have a mishmash of the traditional and the firmly contemporary. In the first we have bagpipes; in the third we have Lady Gaga. Stories of the past are as much of our world today as the history we relegate them to. 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.”As Duff observes, this would, in turn, “set the ball in motion” towards the eventual establishment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Rona Munro’s vividly imagined trilogy brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the tumultuous fifteenth century. Charismatic, cultured, and obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill afford, James III is by turns loved and loathed. Scotland thunders dangerously close to civil war, but its future may be decided by James' resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark. Her love and clear vision can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people. 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.

There were seasons of work from the Middle East and Latin America, twenty-four hour marathons of five minute plays performed live and broadcast online. All life was here in a relentless and at times exhausting itinerary. For example, the character of Peter Morien (played by Thierry Mabonga) is based upon a real figure who “had been in the court for 10 years before the Moorish boat arrived”.Premiering at the Edinburgh International festival in 2014, it’s interesting to consider what aspects haven’t easily translated to an Australian context. The story of James I delves heavily into the relationship between England and Scotland, with Munro’s script written as an overt rebuttal to Scotland’s history left out of a theatrical canon dominated by Shakespeare, while the debate over Scottish independence rages on. The work, of course, is much bigger than that and the tensions and emotions grasp the audience clearly and firmly, but with The James Plays being the theatrical centerpiece of David Sefton’s final Adelaide festival I could not help but wonder where the Australian stories of this scale are. With Featherstone's ongoing tenure at the Royal Court, Tiffany's Tony award winning production of Once on Broadway, and his production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End, it is clear that the NTS tentacles are reaching out to the world. First, James I is returned to Scotland after 18 years held hostage in England with his young English wife, Joan, who finds herself unhappy in Scotland and terrified in the marital bed. Then, James II is witness to his father’s death and separated from his mother as a boy. Unable to cope, his world becomes a nightmare and he is gripped by fear except when in the arms of his best friend, Will, and then his French wife, Mary. James III is rakish and philandering, distrusted by his court and blind to the powers of his wife Margaret, Queen of Scots.

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