'Vivid and engaging': Wendy Chamberlain reviews 'Staging the Stewarts'
Mary, Queen of Scots and her son James VI & I, 1580s: National Portrait Gallery of Scotland exhibition | Image by: Craig Brown / Alamy
4 min read
Marking the 400th anniversary of the death of King James VI & I, playwright Rona Munro eloquently took her audience through an entertaining examination of both her craft and the House of Stewart
All history has a narrative, and that narrative changes over time and is shaped by what follows it. This includes the cultural response to such events. In 2014, the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Theatre of Great Britain jointly produced the first three plays in a cycle by Rona Munro – James I, II and III – covering the reigns of these early Stewart kings.
First performed at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014, the year of the Scottish independence referendum, they attracted global attention as well as global talent, with Sofie Gråbøl playing the powerful queen of James III, Margaret of Denmark. The plays outlined the struggles of these early kings, as well as referencing Scotland’s uneasy relationship with her larger neighbour, England.
Munro describes such timing as luck and in this overview of her plays – linked to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland’s exhibition The World of James VI & I, marking 400 years since the death of the first king of both Scotland and England – outlined the challenges in bringing to life stories little-known in Scotland let alone anywhere else. Unlike the Plantagenets and the Tudors, the Stewarts – save perhaps Mary, Queen of Scots – are largely unknown.
Quickly pointing out that she in no way thinks herself Shakespeare, Munro came to the Stewarts via the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2008 The Histories Cycle, directed by Sir Michael Boyd. Watching the plays, she reflected on how much Shakespeare’s plays had informed and shaped the cultural narrative of these English monarchs and their times. Lamenting the lack of such a framework for their Scottish contemporaries, she began to consider what such a Stewart cycle might involve.
The plays outlined the struggles of these early kings, as well as referencing Scotland’s uneasy relationship with her larger neighbour, England
Using portraits of these rulers, and pointing out how few of these were contemporary, in this one-off lecture Munro entertainingly took the audience through the vivid histories of this period. James I, a prisoner of the English from the age of 12 until his return to Scotland in 1424 at the age of 29. James II, who came to the throne as a small child after the violent murder of his father. James III, ultimately killed at the Battle of Sauchieburn fighting a rebel army led by his own son.
Although the focus of these first plays was very firmly on the kings themselves, in the subsequent plays Munro has attempted to bring other less known individuals to the fore.
James IV, brother-in-law of Henry VIII, and the last king to die in battle in Great Britain, is powerfully depicted, but not the central character of his eponymous play. Instead, Munro used a poem of the Scots makar, William Dunbar, Of Ane Blak-Moir (“Of Ane Black Moor”), as her inspiration highlighting both the inherent racism of the period and the fact that there was a woman of colour present in the Scottish court.
The focus of the play James V: Katherine is Katherine Hamilton, sister of the religious martyr Patrick, who was burned at the stake in St Andrews. In Mary, the titular Queen does not even step on stage, the narrative driven by a diplomatic courtier. Given how much is often projected onto this tragic ruler, it seems fitting that Munro has chosen to leave her voiceless.
Munro makes no apologies for these dramatic choices. These are not simple history plays. Nor does she apologise for determining – despite the fact that James VI & I was not the final Stewart king – that the cycle will conclude with him, and only cover the period until he ascended the throne of England. Lost to Scotland, he returned only once in his 22-year joint kingship.
Munro is an engaging presenter, who eloquently detailed her subjects and her craft. I look forward to the final production.
Wendy Chamberlain is Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife
Staging the Stewarts
Lecture by: Rona Munro, a companion event to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland’s The World of King James VI & I exhibition, running until 14 September
