The English Premiere of the classic Scots comedy by Robert McLellan.
Directed by Rae Mcken. Designed by Libby Lee. Lighting by Ollie Luff.
Assistant Direction by Rania Jumaily.
Produced by aCCentuate and Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.

Cast in order of appearance
Mistress Edward - Susan Lawson Reynolds
Rab - Noufal Ousellam
Bailie Morrison - Gareth Glen
Queen Anne - Gillian MacGregor
Lady Margaret Vinstar - Lucy Conway
Lord Logie - Stuart McPherson
Lord Atholl - Marcus Powell
King James - John Wark
Lord Spynie - Kevin MacIsaac
Bailie Nicoll - Owen Roberts
Maitland - Gareth Glen
Lord Ochiltree - Noufal Ousellam
Lord Lennox - Kevin MacIsaac
Provost - Jamie Partridge
Sir Robert Bowes - Mark Torrance
Bothwell - David Haydn
Sir James Melville - Mark Holloway
Robert Bruce - David Haydn
The Girl - Lucy Conway
The Stranger - Kevin MacIsaac

VIEW TRAILER HERE
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This production commemorates the tercentenary of the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England, the centenary of the birth of the playwright Robert McLellan and the 70th anniversary of the play’s first production.

[ rediscoveries season 2007 ]
7 August – 1 September 2007

“Aa that I hae wished for is promised at last!...the dream o my life come true! It gars my pulse quicken! It gars my hairt loup! It gars my een fill wi' tears! To think hou the twa pair countries hae focht and struggled ...And then to think, as ae day it sall come to pass, that I Jamie Stewart, will ride to Londan, and the twa countries sall become ane”
“Aye, it’s a solemn thocht, your grace. But the auld bitch isna deid yet…”

Jamie the Saxt is the story of King James VI – James I to the English – before he became the first monarch of the United Kingdoms on the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Young Jamie Stewart is shown as a statesman who, in spite of the threats to the crown, his own life, and the stability of the state, manages to triumph through an unheroic combination of luck, folly, tenacity and cunning. As the Act of Union is called into question by the SNP's victory in the Scottish Parliament, the play is also a unique opportunity to see where the Union really began…

Every year, London theatregoers have the opportunity to see plays in many different languages – but very rarely in the indigenous voices of the British Isles themselves. Jamie the Saxt is a unique opportunity to hear Scots, one of the UK's native languages, on the London stage. It should be stressed that the play is written in Scots – not Gaelic – and is easily comprehensible to most English speakers after a few minutes! The British government now accepts Scots as a regional language under the European Charter for Minority Languages - 1.5 million speak Scots in Scotland, and another 30,000 in Northern Ireland.

Royal Shakespeare Company actor John Wark plays Jamie.

Director Rae Mcken returns to the Finborough Theatre to direct following her production of The War Plays, a doublebill of Before Trafalgar by James Lansdale Hodson and Waterloo by Arthur Conan Doyle starring Tim Barlow. She is Resident Director at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Her other credits include Deadlock (NYT), Airswimming (Salisbury Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Young Vic Studio), Stamping, Shouting and Singing and Home (mac and National Tour). As an Assistant Director, she has assisted at the Salisbury Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, Young Vic and the West Yorkshire Playhouse for such directors as Douglas Rintoul, Josette Bushell-Mingo and Ian Brown.

Playwright Robert McLellan (1907-1985) is widely recognised as one of Scotland’s greatest dramatists. Influenced by Hugh MacDiarmid and the Scottish Literary Renaissance movement, McLellan always wrote in Scots about Scottish subjects and characters. He was Honorary President of The Scottish Society of Playwrights, and awarded the OBE in 1975. As a younger Scots playwright, Donald Campbell, said: “Robert McLennan wasn’t just a playwright, he was something else – something different, something special. He was a superb lyric poet who happened to have the additional gift of a theatrical imagination.”

Jamie the Saxt was first performed in Glasgow in 1937, making Duncan Macrae, one of Scotland’s most celebrated actors, an overnight star. The Finborough Theatre now presents the play’s long-overdue English premiere.

The Press on Jamie the Saxt
“Just the thing I would suggest for exiled Scots nostalgic for Edinburgh's political in-fighting.” Michael Billington, The Guardian

“If you’re not going to the Edinburgh Festival, it’s a good way of soaking up some Scottish atmosphere.”
Jane Edwardes, Time Out

"Brimful of Scottish virility.” Claire Ingrams, Rogues and Vagabonds

“Anyone thinking modern politics are peculiarly intrigue-filled and faction-ridden should take a look at this English premiere...for the Finborough’s valuable “Rediscoveries” season.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate

“I've always had a penchant for foreign-language drama. Which is just as well, since Robert McLellan's play, revived to celebrate the centenary of the author's birth and the tercentenary of the Act of Union, is written in broad Scots. ...Full measure is given to such characteristic Scottish pleasantries, uttered by the king to a departing cleric, as "gart ye lick yer vomit." Michael Billington, The Guardian ”

“Enjoy…the muscularity of McLellan's language and the play's narrative drive.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian

“Director Rae McKen marshals a large cast on a small stage in a headlong account of events”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate

“Rae McKen’s stirring production” Jane Edwardes, Time Out

“The period vigour of Rae McKen's production.” Michael Billington, The Guardian

“John Wark is...outstanding as Jamie, whom he plays as a spry, wiry intellectual who refuses to be intimidated by his burly earls and who is always one step ahead of the game.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian

“John Wark’s Jamie. A mix of curly-haired child, cowering in fearful challenge or gloating at his enemy’s defeat, and shrewdly calculating politician, he commands, and demands, respect as monarch rather than through personal demeanour.” Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate

“John Wark, who looks a little like Michael Sheen, makes a contradictory, elfin King”
Jane Edwardes, Time Out

“The production boasts a leading actor of such energy and conviction in John Wark that he could read from the proverbial phonebook and not be dull. Think Michael Sheen or the young Anton Lesser.”
Claire Ingrams, Rogues and Vagabonds

“Gillian MacGregor as his Danish queen, Mark Torrance as the bruising Bothwell and David Haydn, in a notable double as a blood-spitting preacher and Elizabeth's mercifully understandable English ambassador, lend strong support.” Michael Billington, The Guardian

“Mark Torrance’s sinister, imposing Bothwell” Jane Edwardes, Time Out