Book cover for James V: Katherine by Rona Munro

James V: Katherine

2025 Released
80 Pages
1-2 Hours
Ebook Unavailable
Audiobook Unavailable
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Nick Hern BooksISBN 9781839043437

Katherine Hamilton is a nineteen-year-old woman facing arrest and trial in the King's court, with only her quick wit as defense against execution.

James V: Katherine is a dramatic interpretation of key events during a turbulent time in Scotland's history, events that changed the nation forever. It is also a play filled with hidden histories, deft comedy and a secret love story between two young women.

Rona Munro's renowned James Plays are a breathtaking series of plays set during the reigns of Scotland's generations of Stewart kings. Each play stands alone as a thrilling depiction of a moment in Scottish history, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality; taken together, the cycle is a uniquely compelling narrative of a nation tussling with its past and future.

James V: Katherine was first staged at Capital Theatres' The Studio, in April 2024, directed by Orla O'Loughlin, before embarking on a Scottish tour. It was a co-production between Raw Material and Capital Theatres, who previously produced James IV: Queen of the Fight.

Rona Munro is a writer who has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television. Earlier works in the James Plays cycle (I-III) have been performed at the National Theatre in London, across the UK and internationally, and have won Evening Standard and Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.

Rona Munro

Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television including the award winning plays Iron, Bold Girls and The Maiden Stone. Other plays include Long Time Dead produced by Paines Plough Theatre Company and The Indian Boy produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and adaptations Mary Barton and Watership Down which were produced by Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith. Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab and BAFTA nominated Bumping The Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for radio and television and contributed to series such as Casualty and Dr Who. Rona Munro is one of Scotland's leading writers. Her play The Last Witch premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival 2009 while her translation of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba was first presented at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, on 17 September 2009, by the National Theatre of Scotland, and subsequently toured to the Dundee Rep Theatre, the Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, and the King's Theatre, Edinburgh.

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