The Studio, Edinburgh, and touring
The fifth of Rona Munro’s James plays fails to develop an interesting premise about a hidden romance
A dark stage is lapped by flickering candles. Here, four actors present six characters and, briefly, a chorus that introduces the action: the date is 1528; Scotland is a country with “One god, one church, one pope… Until, one day, it isn’t.”
James V: Katherine is the fifth of Rona Munro’s sequence of “James plays” set during the reigns of kings of Scotland. Her ambition is, the playwright says in a programme note, “to make invisible Scottish history visible”. In this instance, by placing a fictional queer love story centre stage and showing how religious puritanism “might have affected women and closed the door on any possibility of queer tolerance”. In a play that feels more like a work in progress than a finished drama, these issues are touched on but do not pulse the heart of the action.
James V: Katherine is at the Studio, Edinburgh, until 20 April, then tours Scotland until 1 June
