''Jamie the Saxt'' is a four act play in Scots by the Scottish dramatist

Robert McLellan Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish Renaissance dramatist, writer and poet and a leading figure in the twentieth century movement to recover Scotland’s distinctive theatrical traditions. He found popular success with plays and ...

. The play was first produced by

Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was b ...

in Glasgow in 1937 with the actor Duncan Macrae in the title role. The historical subject of the comedy is the conflict between the king of Scots,

James VI James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

, and Francis Stewart, the rebellious 5th Earl of Bothwell, in the early 1590s.

Plot

The action of ''Jamie the Saxt'', although a comedy, nevertheless follows attested events closely. McLellan sets each of the four acts at crucial dates in the historical record of the conflict between Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, and the King of Scots beginning on the afternoon of the murder of

James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray James Stewart, 2nd Lord Doune, ''jure uxoris'' 2nd Earl of Moray (c. 1565 – 7 February 1592), was a Scottish nobleman. He was murdered by George Gordon, Earl of Huntly as the culmination of a vendetta. Known as the Bonnie Earl for his good ...

, 7 February 1591/2.

Production history

The first performance of ''Jamie the Saxt'' was at the Lyric Theatre, Glasgow, on 31 March 1937. It was revived in 1953 and 1956.Stevenson, Randall. ''Drama, Language and Late Twentieth-Century Literary Revival'', in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2011). ''The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Drama'',

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

, p. 74,

References

Theatre in Scotland Scottish plays 1937 plays 1937 in Scotland Scots-language works Plays set in the 1590s Plays set in Scotland Plays based on real people Scottish comedy Comedy plays Cultural depictions of James VI and I {{1930s-play-stub