James II: Day of the Innocents

The second part of Rona Munro's The James Plays cycle, James II: Day of the Innocents depicts a violent royal playground from the perspective of the child King and his contemporaries, in a terrifying arena of sharp teeth and long knives.

James II becomes the prize in a vicious game between Scotland’s most powerful families. Crowned when only six, abandoned by his mother and separated from his sisters, the child King is little more than a puppet. There is only one friend he can trust: William, the future Earl of Douglas. As James approaches adulthood in an ever more threatening world, he must fight to keep his tenuous grip on the crown while the nightmares of his childhood rise up once more.

The James Plays premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2014, before transferring to the National Theatre, London, in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland.