Staging and Representing the Scottish Renaissance Court

The morning began with rehearsal of the entrance of the Vices (Flattery, Falset and Dissait) and the pantomimic nature of their dialogue became apparent. We also discussed the meaning of lines 666-681 and where Dissait ‘comes from’ socially and morally.

The music director, John Kielty, joined us and, following the rehearsal on Saturday, it had been decided that some of the Vices’ dialogue will now be sung rather than spoken, so there was some song practice.  Also, the moments where the relationship with the audience can be built up were identified too, such as where the female audience members can be spoken to directly – platea- rather than loci-determined acting.

In the afternoon, the company were joined by the ‘royal’ vices, the king, and the women, and we went through speaking lines 808 –937 in the vernacular before speaking it as written. Guess the line: ‘Thou hast a fanny like a treacherous bog’!

The remainder of the afternoon was spent rehearsing and sharpening the ‘sex’ scene part of the play followed by Rex’s engagement of the disguised Vices into royal office.  Of particular interest was seeing Rex being witlessly led around the stage in thrall of Sensualitie, as well as his kneeling to Flatterie when he appoints him his spiritual counsellor – both spatial expressions of the king’s debasement.

The actor playing Veritie, Alison Peebles, joined rehearsal for the final part of the and we rehearsed her  first entrance.  Whom she was addressing became the most important question to solve, as many of her lessons are directed at princes and bishops who obviously won’t be amongst our audience.  Alison felt uncomfortable delivering a lesson meant for rulers to the common people.  We thought about directing the speech towards the VIP box area, but also considered whether she was articulating a biblical truth that needed to be directed at specific auditors at all.  It was decided that the first verse would be directed towards those in the field, the next four to the VIP area that political rulers might be imagined to inhabit, and the final stanza back to the ‘groundlings’.

Making Verity’s speech work with its complicated constructions and series of qualifications within single sentences made this, as the director said, “the hardest bit of Lyndsay yet”.

We spent most of the day working on the ‘Courtly vices’, Wantonness, Placebo, and Sandy Solace, and their relationship with Rex Humanitas.

How should we think of that relationship? In allegorical terms, as a representation of the dangers to which every youth is prone, or on a more specific, human level, like watching Prince Harry and his mates out on the town? More specifically, we worked through just how close the group were. Could the vices touch the king, for example? And if they did, would it be familiarly and regularly, or hesitantly, wondering just how far they could go? Are they all self-aware of the liberties they are taking, or are some more spontaneous, more ‘natural’ in their camaraderie, unaware of where it might lead?

Gregory Thompson has also been developing the ways in which music and song can punctuate or underscore the action, having the versatile musician John Kielty accompany key pieces of dialogue on keyboard or bazouki, and turning some lines into snatches of song. The transformation of the scene is often striking.

The section we looked at today was the opening three scenes – Diligence’s opening speech, followed by that of Rex Humanitus and then the three courtiers, Solace, Wantonness and Placebo. What became apparent was how quickly the tone of the play changes and develops. Diligence’s opening speech, as worked on by Liam Brennan, in performance has a clear authorial feel. This is partly because of the way it sets up the play, both in turns of creating the audience as a specific image and assuming responsibility for preparing them for what is going to happen. The extent to which Diligence is a version of Lyndsay (one of many in the play – including Folly ) was emphasised by the passage at the end of the speech seeking to protect the play from accusations of sedition or slander. Seeing these words worked on gave me  real sense of the extent to which Diligence’s opening speech is a prologue designed to set up the play and announce Lyndsay’s aims. From Lyndsay’s Diligence,  James Mackenzie’s Rex Humanitus is a king out of his depth. His opening speeches are conventional but they also create a real sense of the pressures of early modern kingship. With the entry of Solace, Wantonness and Placebo another very different tone is set – realism but also comedy.

Watching the actors working on the first three sections of the play reminded how heterogeneous it is. It goes from authorial prologue, to the language of conventional morality plays to something altogether different when the courtiers appear. In particular, there is a sense as an audience of being instantly seduced by the three courtiers. In rehearsal this was partly because the actors playing these roles, Callum Cutherbertson, Richard Conlon and Ewan Donald, brought so much energy to their performances. But I also think that this is a deliberate ploy by Lyndsay. Diligence has important points to make about the play, Rex Humanitus’ speech is serous and moving, Solace’s account of his mother’s various lovers and the different fathers she gave him is comic, realist ( albeit misogynistic ) and unserious. It is almost as though from the opening of the play Lyndsay is tempting the audience to behave in exactly the way that Folly accuses them of behaving at the end. Surely only a foolish person would be seduced by the antics of Wantonness, Placebo and Solace.

Apologies for the delay on this one…

The company saw the set for the first time, locus and platea staging was explained, leading to questions about how they would be using the space, how they would enter and exit.  There were also questions about tickets, disability access and food for the audience.

We moved on to talk about text, and the actors expressed some concern with the fact that the script appeared to be half-Scots, and half-English.  A particular example of Sensualitie’s line ‘Flamand’ as the fire’ was used, corrected to ‘Flamin’’ by the research team, but an actor recalled the poetic magnificence of hearing it pronounced ‘Flammand’ in performance.  So it appears that we have over-modernised the text and it became clear that we would need to de-modernise the text as we rehearse our way through it, and find the pronunciations and rhymes that the Scottish actors are comfortable with.

The differences between Scots, English and Inglis were discussed, and the significance of various places, for instance St. Andrews as a clerical and legal centre of power were considered.

After a coffee break, Greg Walker gave a short talk about Kings James IV, V and VI.  Discussion of the political culture of early modern Scotland, how authority is distributed and the role of the king followed.  Tom Betteridge then spoke about David Lyndsay and his dual role at the Scottish court as herald and poet, saying that both gave Lyndsay authority as poetry wasn’t seen as a frivolous activity during the period.  Finally, Ellie Rycroft considered the dramatic tradition in which Lyndsay was writing and how Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis compares to other literature and drama of the time.

After lunch, the costume designer, Hilary Lewis, showed her designs to the cast and explained the rationale behind them.  The company seemed very happy overall with their costumes, especially the actor playing Hameliness, who was delighted she was going to look so feminine given that she usually plays small boys!