THE JAMES PLAYS Coming to The Marlowe Theatre Next Month

A THRILLING theatrical experience comes to The Marlowe Theatre next month (May).

The James Plays are three award-winning plays about James I, II and III of Scotland; all three plays, written in modern language, will be presented in one day at the Canterbury venue. As well as the usual seating, audiences have the chance to be sat on stage in the heart of the action.

Presented by The National Theatre of Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain, the plays are: James I: The Key Will Keep The Lock, James II: Day of the Innocents, and James III: The True Mirror.

Following critical acclaim and box office success in 2014, The James Plays, by Rona Munro, and directed by Laurie Sansom, are coming to Canterbury as part of a major UK and international tour. The 2014 productions originally co-produced with the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain, opened at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh during the Edinburgh International Festival on 10 August, and then subsequently played at the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London, selling out both runs and playing to more than 88,000 people. The plays went on to win the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best New Play and the Writers Guild Award for Best New Play (James I).

Described by The Telegraph as "better than Shakespeare" and "Rona Munro's thrilling trilogy could be the finest history plays ever penned", The James Plays, exhilarating and vividly imagined, bring to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland from 1406 to 1488.

Each play stands alone as a unique vision of a country tussling with its past and future, with its own distinct theatrical atmosphere. Viewed together they create a complex and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood.

The James Plays are historical drama for a contemporary audience, served up with a refreshing modern directness - they have been called "Scotland's answer to Game Of Thrones", (Daily Record). Audiences are invited to view the performances from the actual stage and share the performer's perspective of the space. These on-stage seats, built into the set, are at heart of the action, as an ensemble of actors takes the audience through a rarely-explored period of history with playful wit and boisterous theatricality.

Audiences responded enthusiastically to the opportunity of viewing the plays as a complete trilogy, seen over the course of a day. This 2016 production will pioneer a new bespoke touring pattern, with English venues offering audiences the chance to see all three plays together, on a Saturday or Sunday.

James I: The Key Will Keep The Lock is bold and irreverent storytelling, exploring the complex character of this colourful Stewart king - a poet, a lover, a law-maker, but also the product of a harsh political system.

James I of Scotland (Steven Miller) was captured when he was only 13 and became King of Scots in an English prison. Eighteen years later he's finally delivered back home with a ransom on his head and a new English bride. He's returning to a poor nation, the royal coffers are empty and his nobles are a pack of wolves ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. But James has his own ideas about how to be a king and, after 18 years, he finally has the chance to realise them.

James is determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring families, but that struggle will force him to make terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen (Blythe Duff) and the crown.

In James II: Day Of The Innocents, innocent games merge with murderous intent in a violent royal playground of shifting realities and paranoia.

An eight-year-old boy is crowned King of Scots. Soon James II (Andrewe Rothney) is the prize in a vicious game between the country's most powerful families, for whoever has the person of the boy king, controls the state. Seen through a child's eyes, the Scottish court is a world of monsters with sharp teeth and long knives.

Growing up alone, abandoned by his mother and separated from his sisters, James II is little better than a puppet. There is only one relationship he can trust, his growing friendship with another lonely boy, William, the future Earl of Douglas (Andrew Still). The two boys cling together as they try to survive the murder and mayhem that surrounds them.

But the independence and power of young adulthood brings James into an even more threatening world. He has to fight the feuding nobles who still want to control him, he has to make brutal choices about the people he loves best, he has to struggle to keep his tenuous grip on the security of the crown and on his sanity - while the nightmares and demons of his childhood rise up again with new and murderous intent.

Like James III himself, the final instalment of Rona Munro's extraordinary trilogy is colourful, brash and unpredictable. James III: The True Mirror turns its eye on the women of the royal court, both lowly and high born, who prove to be its beating heart.

James III of Scotland (Matthew Pidgeon) is irresistible, charismatic, a man of fashion and culture. A man with big dreams - and no budget to realise any of them.

Obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill-afford and his restless nobles will no longer tolerate, James is loved and loathed in dangerously unstable proportions. But Scotland's future will be decided by the woman who loves him best of all, his resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark (Malin Crépin).

As dreams battle brutal realities and the nation thunders dangerously close to regicide and civil war, her true love and clear vision offer the only protection that can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people. But the cost for Margaret herself may be too high.

The James Plays are at The Marlowe Theatre at 11am, 3pm and 7.30pm on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 May. Tickets, from £19.50 to £26.50 (multi-buy offer and concessions available; booking fee applies) are from the Box Office on 01227 787787 or marlowetheatre.com.

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