Nevertheless, the actor continues, the history being depicted on stage occurs “before we [Scotland and England] were even joined”. Consequently, she says, it’s important for actors and audiences alike to “try and put ourselves in that world”. Playwright Rona Munro’s dialogue is firmly contemporary. Director Laurie Sansom pulls each successive play closer to our time – in the first, under traditional costumes, we get glances at modern shoes; by the third we have a mishmash of the traditional and the firmly contemporary. In the first we have bagpipes; in the third we have Lady Gaga. Stories of the past are as much of our world today as the history we relegate them to.

Certain characters represent amalgamations of many characters or stand for political forces within Scotland. Certain events have had their timelines altered to maximise the drama. However, as far as narrative imperatives allow, I’ve followed history and used primary sources. Sansom’s production is designed to be experienced as an 11-hour marathon over a single day but, as I discovered, seeing the three plays over three nights reveals its own strengths. The punchy episodic structure makes for a work to be savoured, as much to be binge watched. With Featherstone's ongoing tenure at the Royal Court, Tiffany's Tony award winning production of Once on Broadway, and his production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End, it is clear that the NTS tentacles are reaching out to the world. Competing lords at first control him until another Douglas, known here as Balvenie, sets up their arrest and sudden execution. Greedy Balvenie (Peter Forbes, malevolently dissembling) gains James’s trust. He has his own eye on the throne. His son William doesn’t want the crown and is the King’s best friend. We cannot know the character and thoughts of these dead kings and queens and long-gone Scots. We can speculate a whole series of possibilities from the few hard facts we can rely on, the slim historical evidence of their actions.

Please note this performance contains strong language, violent scenes, nudity and is not suitable for children. An age guide of 14+ is suggested. Running time - approx 2 hrs 30 mins, including one 20 minute interval. With former director of Cumbernauld Theatre Simon Sharkey appointed as an associate director for community and education-based work, this gang of four represented a younger generation of theatre makers who weren't interested in creating monolithic structures, but would rather break molds in a way that the considerable financial resources behind the NTS would allow.

Who the next artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland – and an artistic director it will be – remains to be seen. Whoever it is - and the NTS need to take their time to get it right - they will have several tough acts to follow. With Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour leading the charge towards the future, the next ten years of the NTS look set to be an even bigger adventure than the last. The play is set in a time before the idea of Europe was synonymous with racism and slavery. By bringing high-ranking Moors into the royal court, the Scottish aristocracy considered themselves to be “very European”, the actor comments. Mark Rowley plays him with an open heart, a good man among many monsters, who wants to do great things at the King’s side. He turns against his father by insisting on a football match and games instead of political business as the traditional way to celebrate Holy Innocents Day.

The James plays then thankfully achieve most of this with a lot of credibility, and set the benchmark for how history plays should be presented to a 21st century audience. They are abound with wonderful, complex personal relationships, as well as exploring grand themes of nationhood or what it means to belong to Scotland, arguments that have raced across time and are still so pertinent now. In 2006 the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith presented Munro's adaptation of Richard Adams' classic book, Watership Down. Violence is a continual presence in this trilogy. James II saw his father murdered. Hidden in a trunk, the little prince, so easily identified by a strawberry mark across his face, survives. Such memories haunt him and we see his nightmares acted out in puppetry and live. An eight year old boy is crowned King of Scots. Soon James II is the prize in a vicious game between the country’s most powerful families, for whoever has the person of the boy king, controls the state. Seen through a child’s eyes, the Scottish court is a world of monsters with sharp teeth and long knives. Fear and resentment of the perceived “outsider” is, as human history shows all too clearly, a dark and powerful combination.