This is a regular monthly opportunity for members to get together, have  coffee and enjoy an unrehearsed read through of a play.

The script that we have on loan from the Performing Rights Library is a fat one – it contains all three plays that make up the James Plays by Rona Munro. Collectively, these vividly bring life to three of the Stewart kings who ruled Scotland during the tumultuous fifteenth century. For this occasion we’ve chosen the first of the three, entitled The Key Will Keep The Lock. If everyone enjoys it, we could schedule future readings of the other two.

Captured at the age of 13 and crowned King of Scots in an English prison, James I of Scotland is delivered home 18 years later by Henry V, King of England.   James, educated, poet and romantic, returns with a ransom on his head and a new English bride. The nation he returns to is poor: the royal coffers empty and his nobles ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. Determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring factions, James faces terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen and the crown.

Scots accents welcomed, but not compulsory.

Danny’s approach to divvying out parts worked really well with The Full Monty last month and we’ll hope to replicate it this time.

Whilst the weather has been beautiful, here’s hoping it will be a little cooler on Friday and that we’ll all fit into the Green Room – it was certainly a close run thing last time.

Best wishes

Hazel, Derek & Danny