It’s a cosmopolitan place, the court of James IV of Scotland. In the earthy crucible of Jon Bausor’s set, you hear Spanish, French, Scots, Gaelic – even English.
With so much international traffic around him, the 16th-century king, played with relaxed authority by Daniel Cahill, knows he has the eyes of Europe on him. “This is a place of peace,” he spits out, making it sound like a threat.
Peaceful though it may be, with its tournaments and deer hunting, this is a court on edge. In Rona Munro’s expansive history play, the fourth in a series that began with James I, everyone is insecure. “I’ve climbed up from dirt and now I cling,” says Blythe Duff as Dame Phemy, the queen’s attendant who, beneath the politeness, is a coarse and hard-bitten survivor.
She is not the only one. There is William Dunbar (Keith Fleming), scrounging a living as a poet, only ever as good as his next flyting (think rap battle, 16th-century style). There is Queen Margaret (Sarita Gabony), a petulant teenager whose marriage to James is a contract to keep England and Scotland close and depends on her producing an heir.
And above all, there are Lady Anne and Lady Ellen, two Moorish women newly arrived from a plague-ridden Bilbao, and desperate to secure a place in the royal household. As Anne, Laura Lovemore carries herself with regal authority even as she is subservient to the queen. Only with grace and extra reserves of tolerance will she remain her confidante.
As Ellen, Danielle Jam is in an even more precarious position. Picking up the language out of necessity (“een … neb … lug … oxter …”), she becomes an entertainer – the queen of the fight – before catching the eye of the king. It makes her as comfortable as she is vulnerable to attack.
When that attack comes, it is in the form of a racist invective that chills the theatre. It shows the place of Ellen and Anne to be doubly provisional; first, like everyone, in their dependency on the favours of the court, second, uniquely, in their irrevocable status as outsiders. In Laurie Sansom’s fluid and forthright staging, it turns a drama of fear and favour into something bleak and unsettling.
At Festival theatre, Edinburgh, until 8 October. Touring until 12 November.
