Tag Archives: Blythe Duff

James III by Rona Munro

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James III by Rona Munro is the third of the James plays and is a co-production of the National Theatre of Scotland, the National Theatre of Great Britain and The Edinburgh International Festival.

Medieval history is a murky place and the feuding Scotish clans are every bit as violent and exasperating as all the other factions of all the other nations that were then emerging. It’s difficult to understand how any one man could have held it together. Apart from the propensity to judicial murder (execution) and the seriously high knife crime stats, there were the vagaries of health that could carry off the most eminent between breakfast and dinner, as one of the servant boys says.

That being so, Rona Munro makes a gallant effort to give the audience a taste of the rumbustious court and the sheer hell of working with an individual like James Stewart III.

Personally, I wanted a clearer narrative. I was interested in the strength and capabilities of Queen Margaret. What a play that would make. I was interested in why Kings so often reject their heirs (the Hanoverians were another example). I was interested in the suggestion late on that the Scots didn’t want a solution, only a gripe.

The device of the mirror was to my taste over played and the bathing scene an unnecessary irritation (although good to see the wonderful Blythe Duff doing pantomime).

The play comes to an over hasty conclusion and I found the nudity offensive – I felt it left the actor, and not the character, vulnerable. Surely this isn’t the intention?

Run continues at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre until 22nd August.

Dramatic Dippings

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The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh buzzes during the Fringe with high expectation and this year, as so many years, it hasn’t disappointed. The quality of the drama on offer is second to none.

First up I saw GROUNDED by George Brant, directed by Christopher Hayden and performed with intense passion and conviction by Lucy Ellinson. What does getting pregnant do to the inflexible world vision of an elite Air Force Major? Does it introduce humanity? Does it vary inviolable self-belief? Does it chip away at only Americans are right? Can it drive you mad? Not actually a very attractive character the major nonetheless commands our sympathy and, ultimately, understanding.

I’M WITH THE BAND was a heady mix of music, poetry, hyped-up action and bad language to the point where you screen out the F and C words and piece the meaning together from what’s left. An extended metaphor about the possible break-up of the UK, it was entertaining and thought provoking.

CIARA by David Harrower was a one woman play for talented theatre performer, Blythe Duff. She handled the complex mix of related and interwoven stories with seasoned skill and understated comedic force that concealed and revealed tragic loss. Loss of a normal childhood, a brother, a father, virginity, trust, the prospect of a child and the Gallery that was the substitute child. Absorbing and in places overwhelming, Harrower’s words ask unanswerable questions about the forces that compose the Glasgow bad man and his woman. If you can’t see another play this year, see this one.

Letter of Last Resort and Good With People

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Traverse Theatre: Letter of Last Resort and Good With People are two excellent pieces from two of Scotland’s best contemporary voices, but what they have to do with one another is a moot point. Certainly the nuclear threat comes up in each and that may be that. My companion speculated that they were too short to stand alone – maybe.

Letter of last Resort exploits the Yes, Prime Minister format, but with a female PM. Dear John takes on a quite other and sinister opening to a letter. Philisophical musings raised issues of chilling importance, but rendered them laughable.

Good With People featured the impeccable Blythe Duff who is really an underused theatrical actor of extraordinary skill – more please. The script had moments of pathos, beauty and illumination, but was eventually unsatisfying. The effect of bullying on the relatives of the bullied could be explored to greater length. The creation of a bully could also have been probed more clinically and perhaps more sympathetically. Yet again, I wondered why there were so few characters. Has drama become only story-telling?

I came out feeling I had had a really good theatrical experience, but yearning for another show like Austentatious (I see the Scotsman have given it a well deserved **** – you read it here first, folks) where I could laugh in amusement – and relax. I’m sort of longing for entertainment at this stage in the Festival experience, rather than clever occasional, in-jokes.

By-the-way why have cast lists/programmes gone out of fashion?