A decadent production
This play cycle about 15th-century Scottish history is a mega-feat of theatrical production. The Luminato Festival has transformed a corner of the Hearn Generating Station into a distressed-industrial-chic, 1,200-seat theatre with miraculously functional acoustics.
Rona Munro’s three plays each run for two hours and 40 minutes (with intermission), making the total time commitment nearly 12 hours for weekend audiences seeing them as a marathon (individual plays can also be viewed on weeknights).
Originally co-produced by the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatres of Scotland and Great Britain two years ago, the plays have been remounted for an international tour that ends with this North American premiere.
Seeing the cycle in its original context — Scotland and England at the time of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum — must have been electric. As a touring product, there is a distance between content and audience that turns its logistical complexity and duration into its exceptional qualities. While Munro’s writing and the work of director Laurie Sansom, his creative team and the 20-person ensemble are highly impressive, the lingering impression for this audience member is of decadence: of site-specificity and spectacularity for their own sakes.
The plays are the result of Munro’s research into the lives of three Scottish kings, all named James Stewart, who reigned from 1406-1488. Munro writes in contemporary language that adds directness and accessibility, though some spectators may struggle with the Scottish accents.
James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock fulfils expectations of a grand medieval history play: political intrigue, coronations and weddings, a big swords-andshields battle scene.
Our first James (Steven Miller) is a gentle-spirited poet sent home, after nearly two decades in an English prison, by English king Henry V (Matthew Pidgeon) to bring law and order to Scotland’s unruly clan-based political system.
James’s most powerful foes are his Stewart relations Murdac (John Stahl) and Isabella (Blythe Duff), who reigned in his absence, and their bloodthirsty sons. In all three of the plays Munro parallels the political with the domestic, allowing her to create numerous strong roles for women, as here with James’s reluctant English bride Joan (Rosemary Boyle) and her Scottish maidservant Meg (Sally Reid).
The jagged, non-linear storytelling of the second play, James II: Day of the Innocents, initially comes as a welcome surprise. It is set, at first, inside the psyche of James II (Andrew Rothney) as he relives the trauma of being violently separated from his family and thrust into the political fray when only a boy.
Munro has reworked this play since its premiere, but it still seems as if she and Sansom have not fully reckoned with its Oedipal and psychosexual subcurrents. A homoeroticism in the connection between James and the young William Douglas (Andrew Still) is implied but not explored, and the play’s preoccupation with the troubled relationship between William and his violent father Balvenie (Peter Forbes) leads to several overextended scenes.
The third play, James III: The True Mirror, shifts tone, style and directorial approach again, as signalled by its opening moments: a ceilidh at which the cast, now wearing contemporary costumes, sing and dance to Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way.”
This James (Pidgeon again) is a pansexual hedonist with more interest in diverting funds into his pet projects (including a personal choir) than ruling. But his character is not the focus: the hero’s journey is that of his Danish wife Margaret, who discovers a capacity for leadership in the void of her husband’s irresponsibility. Swedish actress Malin Crépin is marvellous as a person coming into her own, as in the brilliantly con- ceived scene in which Margaret declares, looking in a mirror for the first time in her life: “I like this woman! Look at her! She’s ready for a laugh, isn’t she?”
The level of ensemble acting is of an extremely high calibre, and the joy and pride that emanate from the company are winning.
Outstanding design work helps create the impression of being inside a cohesive, immersive world. The frequent offstage sound of drumming (design by Christopher Shutt and Nick Sagar) makes the floor shake; it’s hard to believe it’s recorded and not live. Philip Gladwell’s lights help isolate intimate scenes while at other times creating high drama. Jon Bausor’s wood-panelled arena set creates a versatile environment and the presence of audience members looking onto the action from onstage seats helps these productions feel as if they’re taking place in and for a community.
Which brings us back to the central question: What community? Why should this matter to Torontonians today? Of course, theatre frequently puts us in touch with different realities; many would argue that is its raison d’être. But the wisdom conveyed here, that “the wheel will turn round again” — that history repeats, that there will always be another James — doesn’t feel revelatory.
If one had skin in the Scottish independence game, the climactic moment when Margaret addresses the audience directly, asking “What are you frightened of? Making things worse?” could be riveting.