Exam Board: SQA Level: National 5 Subject: English First Teaching: September 2014 First Exam: June 2015 This play, a set text for National 5 English, is the story of three women in war-torn Belfast. Although their men have been killed or imprisoned for their political activities, everyday life must go on. However, the arrival of a disturbing young girl and the revelations which follow threaten to disrupt their friendship. The main themes are largely domestic - relationships between women and within families, dreams and homemaking. The language is colloquial with Irish idioms, and many contemporary references, and there is a poignant ending. The play is aimed at students of English, particularly those studying National 5 English. In 1991 Rona Munro won the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and "The Evening Standard" Most Promising Playwright Award for "Bold Girls".

'You're a wonder. You're a window into a wide world.' Scotland, 1504, seen fresh through the eyes of new arrivals Ellen and Anne, two Moorish women who were expected to take their place at a royal court… but not this one. Both women now have to fight to find and keep a place in the dazzling, dangerous world of the Scottish court of James IV. It's a world where war is never far away, words of love and promises of peace are not what they seem, and where poets might turn out to be more dangerous than any assassin. Rona Munro continues her journey through an uncharted period of Scottish history with James IV: Queen of the Fight, which was first presented in 2022 by Raw Material and Capital Theatres in association with National Theatre of Scotland, and directed by Laurie Sansom. It follows the spectacular success of Munro's plays about James I, II and III, which were first performed by National Theatre of Scotland, transferred to the National Theatre, London, and were named Best New Play at the Evening Standard Awards.

'She made some very poor decisions. You tried to warn her. You love her yet, and that's a credit to you, but you need to think about what's best for Scotland...' It's 1567. James Melville is an intelligent, charismatic and skilled diplomat – and also one of the most loyal servants of Mary Stuart, the troubled Queen of Scots. It's a time of political turmoil, and the shocking crimes he has witnessed have shaken him. Now he needs to decide who's guilty, who's innocent, and who is too dangerous to accuse. Change is coming, but at what price? Mary is an explosive political thriller, and part of Rona Munro's breathtaking theatrical exploration of Scottish history. It is the sixth instalment of The James Plays Cycle which began with James I, II and III, performed by National Theatre of Scotland, including a run at the National Theatre in London, and which won the Evening Standard and Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards in 2014, and James IV, co-produced by Raw Material and Capital Theatres in association with National Theatre of Scotland, in 2022. Mary received its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, also in 2022, directed by Roxana Silbert.

Rona Munro's vividly imagined historical cycle brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the tumultuous fifteenth century. James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock explores the complex character of the colourful Stewart King - poet, lover and law-maker. Captured at the age of 13 and crowned King of Scots in an English prison, James I of Scotland is delivered home 18 years later with a ransom on his head and a new English bride. The nation he returns to is poor: the royal coffers empty and his nobles ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. Determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring factions, James faces terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen and the crown. 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. James III: The True Mirror, like the King himself, is colourful and unpredictable, turning its attention to the women at the heart of the royal court. Charismatic, cultured, and obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill afford, James III is by turns loved and loathed. Scotland thunders dangerously close to civil war, but its future may be decided by James' resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark. Her love and clear vision can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people. Each play stands alone as a unique vision of a country tussling with its past and future; viewed together the cycle creates an intricate and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality. The James Plays premiered at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2014 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to the National Theatre, London. The original three-play cycle was named Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2014.

Genre: Drama

Characters: 4 females Scenery: 2 interiors, exteriors or unit set

The drama of everyday life in Belfast: burning buses, ravaged blocks, gunfire are but off-stage events in this stirring play about three women whose men have been killed or imprisoned for their political activities. Chilling themes are off set by many humorous and heart warming moments in this play about people, not politics, which offers excellent acting opportunities.

1991 Winner, Susan Smith Blackburn Award; Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award.

A play about the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland, The Last Witch explores the psychological rifts that can divide close communities and drive families apart. Dornoch, northern Scotland, 1727. In the claustrophobic heat of summer, a woman's apparent ability to manipulate the power of land and sea stirs suspicion. Janet Horne can cure beasts, call the wind and charm fish out of the sea. Or can she? Her refusal to deny the charge of witchcraft puts her in dangerous opposition to the new sheriff. Her defiance threatens not only her own life but that of her daughter... Rona Munro's play The Last Witch is based on the historical account of Janet Horne, the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland. The play was commissioned by Edinburgh International Festival and co-produced by the Festival and the Traverse Theatre Company. It opened at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2009.

An intense psychological drama set in a women's prison, in which a mother and daughter try to break through the barriers of time, memory and punishment which separate them. Josie is seeing her mother Fay for the first time in a while - she's never walked into a prison before, and she's been putting it off for fifteen years. Fay is serving life for murdering her husband with a kitchen knife. Her daughter needs to find out why she can't remember anything that came before that terrible night, why her own mother would kill her father. Uncovering the memories they share is going to be more perilous than either of them can imagine... Rona Munro's play Iron was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in July 2002, transfering to the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2003. It went on to win the 2003 John Whiting Award.

Garcia Lorca's drama about the shattering effects of emotional repression on a family of cloistered daughters, in a version by playwright Rona Munro for the critically acclaimed Shared Experience Theatre Company. When Bernarda's husband dies, she locks all the doors and windows. She tells her grown-up daughers to sew and be silent. 'There are eight years of mourning ahead of us. While it lasts not even the wind will get into this house.' But locks can't hold back the growing tide of desire... Rona Munro's version of The House of Bernarda Alba was first staged by Shared Experience Theatre Company at Salisbury Playhouse in March 1999 before a UK tour.

Kefalonia, 1941. Captain Corelli, an enigmatic young Italian officer, is posted to the idyllic Greek island as part of the Axis occupying forces. Shunned by the locals at first, he proves to be civilised, humorous - and a consummate musician. The captain is soon thrown together with Dr Iannis's strong-willed and beautiful daughter, Pelagia, who discovers all of the complexities of love, and how it can blossom in the most unexpected and profound way. Rona Munro's adaptation of Louis de Bernieres' much-loved epic novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, premiered on tour of the UK in 2019, before transferring to London's West End.

It's 1991 in West Belfast. With their husbands either locked up or killed, Marie, Cassie and Nora are just trying to get on with their lives, despite the bombs, burning buses and soldiers trampling the flower beds. Life must go on - after all, there's still laundry to do and kids to feed. But when a mysterious young woman turns up on Marie's doorstep and disrupts their girls' night out, the devastating revelations which ensue will shatter dreams and threaten their friendship irrevocably. Sharply funny, moving, yet never shying from the harsh realities of life during the Troubles, Bold Girls is a celebration of women's strength under siege. It was first performed by 7:84 Scottish People's Theatre at Cumbernauld Theatre in 1990 and on tour. The play announced Rona Munro as one of the best playwrights of her generation, winning her the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for 1990-91. This new edition was published alongside the revival at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in June 2018.

An eighteen-year-old girl, Mary Shelley, dreams up a monster whose tragic story will capture the imaginations of generations to come. A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Banished into an indifferent world, Frankenstein's creature desperately seeks out his true identity, but the agony of rejection and a broken promise push him into darkness. Dangerous and vengeful, the creature threatens to obliterate Frankenstein and everyone he loves, in a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunt for his maker. Rona Munro's 'inventive feminist adaptation' (The Stage) of Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now. It premiered on a tour of the UK in 2019.

Fifty years after Yuri Gagarin's first orbit around the Earth, Little Eagles tells the fascinating and little-known story of Sergei Korolyov, chief designer and unsung hero of the Soviet space programme. Under Korolyov's leadership the 'little eagles' of the USSR beat the Americans in the early stages of the space race, achieving a series of firsts, including the first human in space. Rona Munro's gripping play illuminates the life and work of a brilliant engineer who struggled to meet the military demands of his ruthless political masters, whilst devoting as much time as possible to his real passion, exploring outer space. Little Eagles was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2011.

"To protect a muddy little hillside, you doomed your whole world!" The Doctor takes Bill and Nardole back to 2nd century Scotland to learn the fate of the 'lost' Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman Army. 5,000 soldiers vanished without explanation - how? The search for the truth leads the Doctor and his friends into a deadly mystery. Who is the Guardian of the Gate? What nightmare creature roams the wildlands, darkening the sky and destroying all in its path? A threat from another dimension has been unleashed on the Earth, and only a terrible sacrifice can put things right...

Francois and Sophie love each other but break up just before their wedding. Francois' friend, Robert, happens to stay at Lea's b&b, where they have a one-night stand. Lea has a baby and comes to Montreal in search of her childhood friend, Sophie. Meanwhile, Francois has introduced Robert to Sophie without telling him that she is his ex...Just as things are getting really complicated, Lea arrives, Robert declares his love for her, and Francois and Sophie realise they were made for each other after all...Strawberries in January is a delicate, double love story like they don't make them anymore. It has the bittersweet atmosphere of a French film, and like a film the story is told in a series of intriguingly interconnected flashbacks. The effect is of mirrors within mirrors - totally beguiling. Premiered by the Traverse Theatre as one of their two headline shows for the 2006 Edinburgh Festival.

A thrillingly fast-paced play about youthful disaffection, protest and violence, drawing on the history of the Scuttlers, the youth gangs of nineteenth-century Manchester. It's 1882 and the streets of Manchester are crackling with energy, youth and violence. As workers pour into Ancoats to power the Industrial Revolution, 50,000 people are crammed into one square mile. The mills rumble thunderously day and night. The air is thick with smoke. Life is lived large and lived on the street. This is the world's very first industrial suburb and the young mill workers form the very first urban gangs, fighting over their territory with belts, fists and knives. Invisible in history, their lives, deaths, loves, lusts and defiant energy tell stories that will repeat and repeat over the decades that follow. Scuttlers by Rona Munro was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2015. With nine leading roles and a large cast of mill workers and gang members, Scuttlers is well suited to performance by schools and youth groups, who will enjoy its physical energy and dramatic storyline.

A romantic-comedy-thriller about the heat of love and the magic of changing perspectives. Lin Han and Jie Hui have exchanged 536 emails and 72 jpegs, though they've only just met. She's sure he's the man she could fall in love with, if only he'd do it first. But Jie Hui's a little distracted. When his business partner gets shot, things start to get very complicated - especially when he realises his heart is broken. Meanwhile, Madeleine finds herself falling for James, the most attractive man she's met in years. And the feeling seems to be mutual. It's just a pity he's the policeman questioning her about the shooting of her ex-boyfriend... Rona Munro's play Pandas was first staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2011.

A collaboration between three Scottish playwrights. The play focuses on seven characters whose worlds collide to create a modern mosaic about money and love. John, Carla, Al, Jo, Chris, James and Anita are all trying to work out the best currency in which to conduct their dealings with the world.

Rebecca Benson reads a novelisation of the TV adventure featuring the Twelfth Doctor, Bill and Nardole. "To protect a muddy little hillside, you doomed your whole world!" The Doctor takes Bill and Nardole back to 2nd century Scotland to learn the fate of the 'lost' Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman Army. 5,000 soldiers vanished without explanation - how? The search for the truth leads the Doctor and his friends into a deadly mystery. Who is the Guardian of the Gate? What nightmare creature roams the wildlands, darkening the sky and destroying all in its path? A threat from another dimension has been unleashed on the Earth, and only a terrible sacrifice can put things right... Rebecca Benson, who played Kar in the 2017 TV episode starring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, reads Rona Munro's novelisation. Reading produced by Neil Gardner at Ladbroke Audio Sound design by Simon Power Executive producer: Michael Stevens (c)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Two plays, from the award-winning author of Iron. Your Turn to Clean the Stair is a comically sinister study of the tensions in an Edinburgh tenement. Old Mrs Mackie has always been in charge of her stair, the communal stairwell she shares with inhabitants like tough single-mum Kay and brittle young couple Lisa and Brian. And then there's dodgy Bobby who just gets on everyone's nerves. So when - after avoiding his stair-cleaning duties once again - Bobby's body is found at the bottom of the stairs, the question is not did he fall or was he pushed, but whodunnit? Rona Munro's play Your Turn to Clean the Stair was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in April 1992 and subsequently on tour. Fugue is a psychological horror story about a woman suffering a mental breakdown. Kay, a 24-year-old secretary, encounters her alter ego as she suffers an emotional breakdown in the Grampian Hills. Fugue was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in April 1983.

Lisa Bowerman reads this exciting classic novelisation of a Seventh Doctor TV adventure, the last in the original run of Doctor Who serials. "Attention to detail is a hallmark of this always excellent range" Doctor Who Magazine The Doctor brings Ace home to Perivale. On a summer Sunday it seems the least lively place in the universe, yet mystery lurks behind the calm facade. The members of Ace's old gang have gone away, each of them disappeared without trace. Something is killing the domestic pets of Perivale, and unearthly hoofprints scar the baked earth of the recreation ground. What strange force connects all these events? As Ace herself is transported to a distant planet, it seems that the Doctor may be stepping into a well-prepared trap. Can it be the work of the his old adversary, the Master - and if so, to what end? Lisa Bowerman, who played Karra in the 1989 BBC TV serial, reads Rona Munro's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1990. Duration: 4 hours approx.

Following the gangland execution of her husband, the formidable matriarch Bernarda Alba will do anything to safeguard her family's dubious fortune and the future of her five daughters. A deal is struck --a marriage of convenience between her eldest girl and the son of a business rival. All Bernarda has to do is ensure that the wedding happens, and quickly. Five headstrong daughters cooped up in the family home in an emotionally charged atmosphere of bitter rivalry and repressed sexuality make that an epic challenge.One of the most celebrated European dramas of the 20th century, the play was finished by Lorca shortly before he was executed in Spain for his left-wing politics. He described it as a "drama of women in the villages of Spain" - a theme that is electrifyingly transposed in this version to the tough communities of Glasgow's East End. Faithfully preserving Lorca's sense of boiling tension and impending tragedy, this adaptation brings a classic text thrillingly up to date. This text was published to coincide with the world premiere of the adaptation, a production by the National Theatre of Scotland in 2009.

A gripping and darkly humorous play about the camaraderie of a trio of obsessive mountaineers. Grizzly, Dog and Gnome live to climb mountains. They're good at it. They're not looking for death. They love what they do and they do it to the limit. But they're climbing up to places where death is only one mistake away. Suffused with black humour, Rona Munro's play Long Time Dead is an expedition into ghosts frozen in time, immediate bonds of camaraderie and horizons yet to be discovered. Long Time Dead was first performed by Paines Plough at The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth, in October 2006. The production was revived at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2007 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Best New Play, Evening Standard Theatre Awards, 2014Rona Munro's vividly imagined trilogy brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the tumultuous fifteenth century.James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock explores the complex character of the colourful Stewart King  poet, lover and law-maker.Captured at the age of 13 and crowned King of Scots in an English prison, James I of Scotland is delivered home 18 years later with a ransom on his head and a new English bride. The nation he returns to is poor: the royal coffers empty and his nobles ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. Determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring factions, James faces terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen and the crown.?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.James III: The True Mirror, ?like the King himself, is colourful and unpredictable, turning its attention to the women at the heart of the royal court.Charismatic, cultured, and obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill afford, James III is by turns loved and loathed. Scotland thunders dangerously close to civil war, but its future may be decided by James' resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark. Her love and clear vision can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people.Each play stands alone as a unique vision of a country tussling with its past and future; viewed together the trilogy creates an intricate and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality.The James Plays premiered at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2014 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to the National Theatre, London. The trilogy was named Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2014.Rona Munro is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her screenplays include the Ken Loach film Ladybird.'a towering achievement... a modern classic' - Evening Standard'an astonishing dramatic achievement... Munro's script is the star... a feast of theatrical might and blistering emotion' - Telegraph'full of topical resonance... These are unequivocally plays for today... Munro skilfully interweaves the personal and the political' - Guardian'wit, punch and accessibility... this is theatre that mixes the personal with the political to fabulous effect. ... The scope is Shakespearean, yet Munro applies a contemporary sensibility to her medieval characters, who talk and swear in modern tongue' - The Times'Rona Munro's three plays can stand confidently alone but, taken together, have a scale and reach that is thrilling and satisfying in equal measures' - Independent