Details

In the second of Rona Munro's dynastical trilogy, 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 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. 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.

Cast/Performers

Cameron Barnes, Daniel Cahill, Ali Craig, Blythe Duff, Nick Elliott, Peter Forbes, Andrew Fraser, Sarah Higgins, Stephanie Hyam, Gordon Kennedy, Aly Macrae, David Mara, Beth Marshall, Rona Morison, Andrew Rothney, Mark Rowley, Fiona Wood

Creatives/Company

Author: Rona Munro
Presented by(s): National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival, National Theatre of Great Britain
Director(s): Laurie Sansom, Neil Bettles (movement), Mervyn Millar (puppet), Amanda Gaughan (associate director)
Design: Jon Bausor
Lighting: Philip Gladwell
Sound: Christopher Shutt