Staging and Representing the Scottish Renaissance Court

The morning was spent working intensely on the first part of Act 2. It was noticeable the change in the tone of the piece between Act 1 where reform seems relatively easy to the detailed to debates that are required in Act 2 to restore the commonweal. In rehearsal what becomes apparent is the extent to which Parliament often becomes a row between the clergy on one side and John the Commonweal and the Pauper on the other. Tom McGovern’s Spirituality is not simply a corrupt cleric, as the role has developed he has become more and more dangerous and disturbing. It was also interesting to note the amount of variation that Paul Cunningham as Temporality and Michael Mackenzie as Merchant found in their roles; as the play focuses more and more on the corruption of the clergy Temporality and Merchant become allies to Divine Correction and Rex Humanitus. In particular, during the rehearsals this morning Temporality’s role in placing the focus on the clergy, with Merchant’s support, came to the fore.

It was also interesting to note how important Good Counsel’s role is in the first part of Act 2 in keeping the Parliament on track. Gerda Stevenson’s Good Counsel is consistently the voice of reason and in rehearsal there were a number of moments when having a woman playing the role really brought out its rational and calming status. When all the men were shouting at each other it was Good Counsel who brought them back on track with her wisdom and patience.

The afternoon was taken up with a fight call and further work on Act 2.

The morning began with rehearsal of the hanging again, a very technical part of the play.  Jimmy Chisholm and Barrie Hunter were making marvellous sense of their long and complex gallows speeches.   There’s an interesting shift from iambic tetrameter to iambic pentameter in Falset’s final speech, which registers a shift in tone from a denouncement of the local craftsmen to rulers, prelates, judges in general – but also wives dwell amongst this illustrious company?!

Before lunch, we re-rehearsed the Folly/Rex/Diligence ending of the play.  This is very much a three-way dynamic which speaks of a particular triad of courtly life in the play, and perhaps the personal vision of Lyndsay.  Diligence, the assiduous herald who is widely seen as a Lyndsay figure, mediates the passage of Folly to the King – does this tell us something about the playwright himself?  I was reminded of Jamie Reid-Baxter saying that Diligence and Folly are refractions of Lyndsay’s own character.

In the afternoon, there was a real festival atmosphere as 30-odd ‘jesters, jugglers and bauble-bearers’ prepared to run Part One of the play.  It was fascinating to see the skilful dramaturgy of Lyndsay in the first half take shape.  Enough time is spent setting up the King’s fall that Good Counsel appears at the opportune moment to cast a virtuous perspective on the events.  And just as her voice of sense is registered, the level of Vice is ramped up by the entry of Flattery, Falset and Dissait.  The middle part of the first half marks the nadir of Rex’s reig; his enthrallment to Sensuality, his employment of evil personnel, and rejection of Good Counsel.  Verity’s entrance is the fulcrum from which point the reformation of the king is anticipated, although it his transgression is also heightened by the introduction of notions of religious truth and sin rather than simply the political and social evils of the first half.  We are then led via Verity and Chastity to the ultimate appearance of Divine Correction and the restoration of good order at Rex’s court.  It is a beautifully crafted piece of drama and only through performance can this craftsmanship be appreciated.

We tried putting the ‘Interval play’ directly after Part One and it heightened the sense that the dramatic space has been invaded by the Pauper, as both actors and audience have slipped out of ‘theatrical mode’, and had to quickly slip back in.  I wondered whether this was the order of the drama envisaged by Lyndsay as, dramaturgically, he is fascinated with the notion of the false sending.  This idea governs the overall structure of the Satyre.  Part One finishes in the mode of a traditional morality play, but the finality of this genre is significantly challenged by the parliament drama of Part Two.  The interval play is a further, third piece of drama incorporated into the overall play and the Pardoner’s “Now tarry any little, I pray you,/ Till I with you be known” – does seem to be designed to further delay an audience itching to get away for the drink Diligence has just suggested.  If the interval play was supposed to follow directly on from Part One, this raises an interesting question – is this the “best pairt of the play” that Diligence has just promised? With the Pauper’s tale of woe, the arse-kissing divorce, and the interchanges of the Pardoner with other characters – it is certainly one of the funniest.

We started off by running Act 2.  It was really interesting to see the political space materialised with so many of the cast members inhabiting it.  Particularly striking was the relationship between the Pauper, parliament and audience, with David McKay speaking upstage but frequently taking in the crowd as the poor ‘commoun’, speaking as and for them.  There was an enlightening change marked between John and Pauper assuming they will not be listened to when they first approach the parliament, followed by their surprise when they realise that Divine Correction has their back – it is the movement from their oppression to their enfranchisement in the play.   Also interesting was the ‘rounding’ together of the Spirituality in the Parliament to take advisement on the laws being proposed – their secret conversations seemed in stark contrast to the transparency of the rest of the political space.  There seemed to be so many members of the Spirituality on the stage – Bishop, Abbot and Parson, as well as the  Friar and Prioress just behind them – as opposed to the self-representing Merchant and Temporality.

We also charted the various responses to John and Pauper’s assertions of ‘Were I ane King’ and ‘Were I ane pape’ with the parliament finding these challenging statements.  Most important though was Rex’s reaction- he stands  in some sort of defiance against Pauper but also listens thoughtfully.  During the Parliament we are witnessing Rex’s bettering as a monarch.

The staging of the Parliament continued into the afternoon – this is definitely one of the most complex parts to realise given the complexities of political access and space in the play.  There is also the question of finding the appropriate reactions.  The Parliament, for instance, stand in sequence when John the Commonwealth shows forth his true faith (the Spirituality reluctantly) – their honorific response demonstrates the verity of John’s words.  The reactions of the Parliament help to mark the various episodes of this long scene, while mitigating against the action becoming static.

Today we concentrated on the entry of the Three Estates ‘gangand backwart’ and John the Commonweal’s appearance.  We read through the whole of the second half of the play to the hanging of the Vices, and broke the Parliament down into its constituent parts.

The Director, Gregory Thompson worked with the actors playing the Estates and their vices on the practicalities and principles of their backward entry. It was decided that the Estates, with the exception of Spirituality, had no sense that they were being led like puppets by the Vices Covetise, Flattery, Deceit, Falsehood and Sensuality. As Spirituality would later say, they see nothing wrong with what they are doing. They think they ‘gang right wonder pleasantly’. So we saw the Estates waving obliviously to the audience as they are dragged backwards by capering Vices who are to them invisible.  (A lot of time was spent on getting the movements right, to music provided by John Kielty with Annie Grace and Kern Falconer.)

It is only when John exposes the Vices ‘lurking’ behind them that Merchand and Temporality see to their horror how they have been deceived by their worst instincts. The Vices are then dragged off to the stocks. We then worked on the impact of John’s address to parliament – how the members react to this bold intrusion, and what the Spirituality make of the ominous references to ‘reformation’ which start to echo around the stage.