National Theatre of Scotland previews 2014 season, with Rona Munro, David Greig and others

This year, the National Theatre of Scotland tackles the question of Scottish identity head-on, presenting a programme of plays that engages with the history, the future and the character of the nation. Perhaps the most ambitious project is the Dear Scotland... strand, which asks some of the nation's leading writers and thinkers to pen a monologue from one of the artists and cultural figures featured in the National Portrait Gallery. The "living postcard" will then be dramatised by actors in the gallery space, with visitors invited to send in responses. A bravura piece of promenade theatre, it is an attempt to give voice to significant cultural figures from Scottish history in a contemporary setting, and engage in debate about what it means to be Scottish. Dear Scotland... will run from 24 April to 3 May.

Later in the year, David Greig and David MacLennan co-curate The Great Yes, No, Don’t Know, Five Minute Theatre Show, with professional, amateur and first-time theatre makers invited to make and perform a five minute theatre piece inspired by the theme of 'independence'. The show will take place at various locations across Scotland and beyond, and will be live streamed to a global audience and performed over 24 hours in June.

In August, NTS will present a brand new set of history plays about Kings James I, II and III of Scotland. Described by NTS as "epic historical theatre for remarkable times," The James Plays will be a co-production with the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain, and will feature a 20-strong ensemble cast including actors Cameron Barnes, Daniel Cahill, Blythe Duff, Sofie Gråbøl, Sarah Higgins, James McArdle, Rona Morison, Mark Rowley and Fiona Wood. The plays are written by Rona Munro, and directed by Laurie Sansom. They will run throughout August at the Festival Theatre. 

Sansom commented: "When I first read Rona Munro’s trilogy of plays about James I, II and III of Scotland, I realised that not only were they a rare gift to an incoming Artistic Director, they were also something extraordinary to offer to audiences during a year when Scotland’s history and future are under the spotlight. The three plays are daring, passionate and offer a tumultuous ride through Scottish 15th century history. I look forward to bringing Rona's vividly evoked backstage dramas of Scotland's medieval royalty to a contemporary audience in a remarkable year for Scotland and friends."

"I wrote these plays because I adore medieval history," said Munro. "We do not have many accessible, popular culture versions of our medieval history in Scotland and most people have very little knowledge of these events. I want people to experience them as I imagine them, not as something remote happening to people in odd costumes talking in inaccessible 'history speak' but as visceral, epic stories of people who thought and felt as we do. These loves, deaths, friendships and betrayals inform our present. My greatest ambition is that audiences will come out with at least some of the same fevered enthusiasm for our history that I have, and with these stories lodged in their heads."

Other highlights from later in the year include Blabbermouth, a live twelve-hour tapestry of one country's letters, lyrics, polemics and poems, read, sung and performed by its people between midday and midnight the day before the referendum on independence (17 Sep), and featuring leading artists, broadcasters, politicians, writers, sportspeople and the public. There will also be a revival of Joe Corrie's 1926 classic In Time O’ Strife, in a new adaptation by Graham McLaren, which tours throughout Scotland in the Autumn – full details of these shows will be confirmed nearer the time. NTS polishes off the year with a traditional and well-loved Christmas play, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, also directed and staged by McLaren.  

The full programme for the 2014 season at NTS can be found on their website, also featuring previously announced work by Kieran Hurley, Fiona J. Mackenzie, Cora Bissett, Vanishing Point, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.