- Catriona Faint will play the lead role of Katherine in the latest instalment in Rona Munro’s renowned James Plays, with the cast also featuring Sean Conor, Benjamin Osugo, and Alyth Ross.
- Directed by Orla O’Loughlin, the new production will have its world premiere in Edinburgh before touring venues across Scotland, from the Highlands to the Borders, from April 2024
- Creative team for the production will include Designer Becky Minto, Composer/Sound Designer Danny Krass, and Lighting Designer Derek Anderson.
A Raw Material and Capital Theatres co-production, James V: Katherine will continue Rona Munro’s celebrated James Plays theatrical series when it premieres next month.
Employing the same vivid historical storytelling of the previous instalments, set during the reigns of Scotland’s generations of Stewart kings.
James V: Katherine places a lesser-known female historical figure front and centre in the story, with an intimate and up-close performance with focussed, raw and beautiful storytelling, directed by Orla O’Loughlin (Enough of Him, What Girls Are Made Of, Mouthpiece).
Katherine Hamilton is nineteen. She‘s a respectable young married woman, but she also has a secret love she’s trying to forget. When her brother, Patrick, is executed for preaching ideas forbidden by the church, Katherine is also put on trial for her life. In a packed courtroom, watched by most of Edinburgh and the cynical, young King James V, Katherine fights for survival, using her intelligence and wit.
This play is based on real historical figures and is a dramatic interpretation of key events at the very start of the Scottish Reformation, events that did happen and did change Scotland forever. It is also a love story.
The role of Katherine will be played by Catriona Faint, whose recent stage credits have included the UK-wide tour of Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning and the award-winning Enough of Him, both with the National Theatre of Scotland. The production’s ensemble cast will also include Sean Conor (River City, Moorcroft), Benjamin Osugo (A Christmas Carol, The Bookies – Dundee Rep), and Alyth Ross who will make her professional stage debut in the production.
The production will be brought to life by a creative team including Designer Becky Minto, Composer / Sound Designer Danny Krass, and Lighting Designer Derek Anderson.
James V: Katherine will premiere in Capital Theatres’ The Studio in Edinburgh, before embarking on a tour of Scottish venues with stops in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Tobermory, Inverness, Dunoon, Dunkeld, St Andrews, Stirling, Peebles and Melrose.
Supported by Chris Grace Hartness.
Funded by the Creative Scotland Touring Fund.