Dunsinane

by David Greig

Late at night in a foreign land, an English army sweeps through the landscape under cover of darkness and takes the seat of power. Struggling to contain his men and the ambitions of his superiors, the commanding officer attempts to negotiate the unspoken rules of this alien country. He seeks to restore peace to a country ravaged by war. This is Scotland in the eleventh century at the height of the fight for succession of the Scottish throne.

David Greig's "Dunsinane" premiered in February 2010 at Hampstead Theatre, London, in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Historical Fiction, Shakespeare, School, Theatre, Scotland

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2010

About the author

David Greig is a Scottish dramatist. He was born in Edinburgh in 1969 and brought up in Nigeria. He studied drama at Bristol University and is now a well-known writer and director of plays. He has been commissioned by the Royal Court, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company and was Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh from 2015 until 2025, when he left to return to writing.

His first play was produced in Glasgow in 1992 and he has written many plays since, produced worldwide. In 1990 he co-founded Suspect Culture Theatre Group with Graham Eatough in Glasgow.

His translations include Camus' Caligula (2003), Candide 2000, and When the Bulbul Stopped Singing, based on a book by Raja Shehadeh. Danmy 306 + Me (4 ever) (1999) is a play written for children.

David Greig's plays include The American Pilot (2005), about America's involvement in the Middle East and Eastern Europe; Pyrenees (2005) about a man who is found in the foothills of the Pyrenees, having lost his memory; and San Diego (2003), a journey through the American dream. His latest works are Gobbo, a modern- day fairytale; Herges Adverntures of Tintin, an adaptation; Yellow Moon (2006); and Damascus (2007)

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed this play. Loved the absurdity and the sarcasm.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greig is a fantastic playwright. Dunsinane is sort of a sequel to Macbeth, focusing on the attempts by the English general Siward to pacify and unite Scotland under Malcolm's rule. But there is so much more interesting depth to this play. It's actually an Iraq War commentary critiquing the folly of British (and US) involvement in Iraq by creating the analogy between the English as coalition forces and the Scots as occupied Iraq. While Siward has come to Scotland and pursued his war with noble intentions--creating peace and stability under a just king--his efforts are thwarted because he refuses to understand the way Scottish politics works and because by and large his soldiers don't share his noble goals. The latter is the more minor problem, represented principally by Egham, who wants to take Scotland's national treasures to enrich himself and his troops. But the much more pressing problem for Siward is that Scotland is run through sets of loyalties, subtle signals, familial relationships, and favors owed or given. Unlike the unified top-down kingdom Siward imagines--which is itself a very corporate model of government--Scotland functions because the strong nobility allows it to remain stable. And they allow it to remain stable because there is constant tension and struggling for power. Siward finds, though he refuses to accept, that this arrangement is how things must run in Scotland; he cannot have his vision of a country united under one strong, centralized ruler. But because he refuses to accept that reality, Siward turns increasingly to brutal force to oppress resistance in the attempt to impose his will.

One of the things that makes this play so interesting is the identification of Scotland with occupied Iraq, and the identification of the English with the invaders who turn increasingly to violent repression. Greig is a Scottish nationalist who supported independence in the 2014 referendum, and many of his plays suggest a stronger Scottish national identity apart from a UK identity. I think Greig would be more comfortable with a left-leaning Scottish nation as part of the European community than he is with the current situation, where Scotland is subordinated to a generally more conservative UK government (the Scots tend to be more left wing than Downing Street). So in identifying Scotland-in-the-play as the location of the failed occupation he suggests also that Scotland-in-real-life is occupied by a foreign power which doesn't properly understand its people and culture.
https://youtu.be/SqeSVVHYW34

[SmarterLilac · Rating 5 out of 5]

B-r-i-l-l-i-a-n-t. The best play I've read this year. David Greig manages to blend both the historical realities of this era in Scotland with the spirit of Macbeth as Shakespeare envisioned it. Taut, engaging, even humorous at times, (much like the underappreciated aspects of the Bard's take on these events) the heart of this play is its well-crafted dialogue and haunting imagery. Modern drama is not dead; this is playwriting at its finest. Superb.

[Feisty Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macbeth is dead. The British have invaded the castle via Dunsinane. And Lady Gruach Macbeth is still pulling all the strings. It took three read-throughs for me to really love this, and some visualization (I'm designing the costumes for a performance and that helped me relate with the characters and text a lot better). This isn't in iambic pentameter, but in modern vernacular, which also helps, I think. Excellent story, character arcs, etc. I also now really want to go to Scotland.

[Oz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turns out you can't successfully occupy a people with good intentions

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

slay queen

[Scarlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book for my uni coursework and I really enjoyed getting closure on Macbeth - although quite a short book, really good.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

slaps

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Next On:
Sunday, 20:00 on BBC Radio 3

A thrilling sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth by the award-winning playwright David Greig
Macbeth is dead. Under cover of night, an English army has swept through the landscape, killed the tyrant and taken the seat of power.
Attempting to restore peace and put in place a new ruler, the commanding officer is beset by a brutal guerrilla uprising and simmering discontent amongst his own inexperienced troops. Struggling to grasp the alien customs and politics of this harsh country, he finds himself drawn towards the tyrant's powerful widow in search of someone to share his burden of responsibility. Increasingly isolated from his own men and Scottish allies alike, his efforts to restore order appear futile as the situation spins out of control.
David Greig's exhilarating play is a vision of one man's attempt to restore peace in a country ravaged by war.

[Andrew Kosztyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing a successful sequel to a Shakespeare play is harder than wearing a copy of Pippa Middletown's bridesmaid dress to your 50th birthday party... But Greig has penned a follow-up to "The Scottish Play" that carries all the brutal impact -- if not the humor and lyrical beauty -- of the original.

[Carey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Should have ended at Macbeth - one of my favourites.

[OffBeatBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read my full review on my blog, Miscellany Pages. Book Blog with Variety - Expand Your Reading Horizons.

https://miscellanypages.wordpress.com

Rating: 4 stars

Category: Play

Synopsis: Macbeth, the Scottish tyrant, has been defeated and King Malcolm placed on the throne. However, Scotland’s woes are far from over. With an English army placed at Dunsinane to protect Malcolm from dissenters, all sides are wary and loyalties only tentative. The possibility of peace is called into question as citizens and foreigners alike struggle to navigate this strange and unforgiving land.

Review:

First Impressions

David Greig wrote Dunsinane as a sequel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Talk about a tough act to follow – extending one of the most popular tragedies by probably the most infamous writer in the English language!

I would advise reading Macbeth first as Dunsinane assumes that you already know the story, jumping straight into the action without preamble. However, this meant that it was incredibly quick to get into and had me gripped from the very first page.

...

Favourite quote:

"You seem to think peace is a natural state, Siward, and conflict its interruption, but the truth is the exact opposite. Peace is what the sea looks like in a dead calm – a rare and beautiful moment – something impossible – a glimpse of perfection before the wind comes back again."

Read if: you would like to read a raw and atmospheric Shakespeare sequel.

[Keerthi Vasishta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sarcastic overview of the UK's involvement in Iraq, Greig's play is also extremely tongue-in-cheek about Scottish identity and the 'enlightened' belief in ideas of those who claim to be harbingers of peace.
As a play, Greig's Dunsinane is anything but Shakespeare's Macbeth from which it has its origins and Greig's own writing keeps it unique and different consciously from the legendary bard's composition. The symbolism is sometimes very obvious and overpowering but the cast of characters with their broad stroke representative personas still manage to hold your interest.

[Leoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall not bad considering it’s a sort of sequel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth that wasn’t written by Shakespeare himself. Some themes that I really liked in Macbeth just didn’t carry over- not as intense as I expected and I deffo think there should have been more witchy scenes. Needed more characters with long ass monologues talking about how mental they are. The characters were too stable for my liking.
On the other hand- very grateful that it didn’t take you 20 mins to try and figure out a sentence, so a quick and easy read that has a couple of curveballs and plot twists.

[sofide · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is a cold country but when there's no mist in the air -
No rain - no grey - no wet - which can be surprisingly often -
Then Scotland becomes a place of white against blue -
Blue sky against white mountains - bright blue against white birch bark -
And the white diagonal cross against blue field which is their flag - "

Yo: los nacionalismos son malos
Yo también: escocia escocés glasgow dunsinane ceilidh kilt escocia

[Sarah Stoppard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't really my kind of play.
It was an interesting insight into another perspective of Macbeth, however for the play to work many facts of the original had to be discarded.
I enjoyed the banter of the unnamed soldiers as their conversations seemed natural for the situation.
It is quite a short play as I managed to read it in under three hours.

[Rebeka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this play. It managed to be humorous, sad and critical at the same time. Grauch was definitely my favourite character.
All in all, it is a wonderful sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth. I will definitely love it even more after discussing it at university

[Mai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing! There are so many beautiful quotes and the characters are superb with their rich personalities!

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very pleasantly surprised

[Isla (lovednonebutyou) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was mixed for me. Objectively it was amazing but it was a little bit of a trudge to get through, especially today. However, I loved Siward's character arc, even if it was quite sad.

[Niamh · Rating 4 out of 5]

i didn’t think i’d like this but it’s really great ngl

[Ellsreadsalot · Rating 3 out of 5]

And this is what they chose for coursework…

[coralie · Rating 4 out of 5]

hen girl i would die for you

[Nadia McVey · Rating 4 out of 5]

i never read plays but this was a great gift from a colleague that made me want to analyse the text higher english style

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

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Sunday, 20:00 on BBC Radio 3



COMES WITH A PARENTAL GUIDANCE STICKER

Blurb - A thrilling sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth by the award-winning playwright David Greig

Macbeth is dead. Under cover of night, an English army has swept through the landscape, killed the tyrant and taken the seat of power.

Attempting to restore peace and put in place a new ruler, the commanding officer is beset by a brutal guerrilla uprising and simmering discontent amongst his own inexperienced troops. Struggling to grasp the alien customs and politics of this harsh country, he finds himself drawn towards the tyrant's powerful widow in search of someone to share his burden of responsibility. Increasingly isolated from his own men and Scottish allies alike, his efforts to restore order appear futile as the situation spins out of control.

David Greig's exhilarating play is a vision of one man's attempt to restore peace in a country ravaged by war.

CAST:
Siward ..... Jonny Phillips
Gruach ..... Siobhan Redmond
The Boy Soldier ..... Jack Farthing
Malcolm ..... Brian Ferguson
MacDuff ..... Ewan Stewart
Egham ..... Alex Mann
Edward ..... Daniel Rose
Eric ..... Joshua Jenkins
Lulach ..... Sandy Grierson
Hen Girl ..... Lisa Hogg

Other parts were played by members of the company.

Original songs and music composed by Nick Powell
and performed by Alex Lee, Sarah Wilson and Lisa Hogg.

Director, Roxana Silbert
Producer, David Ian Neville.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dunsinane by David Greig

Despite not really wanting to go back into this play, I had to re-read it for my university module as I chose to do my essay on it. This is mainly because Dunsinane is one of the easier texts on my course to write about and I also wanted to write about Macbeth, which this play pairs with the best. So I am going to try and write a deeper review into this play as I’ve had more time to study it. As always, there are spoilers ahead!

Dunsinane is a sequel play to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written by David Greig. We follow the events after the battle, and how Scotland emerges from it now under English rule. Things that I liked about this is that it was easy to read and digest, it provided Lady Macbeth - or Greig’s interpretation of her historical figure ‘Gruach’ - with more agency of her own. The female characters in this play definitely stand out a lot more than they do in Macbeth. This play was also quite funny at times as well. I also appreciate how Greig is reclaiming Macbeth’s story back from England, as he inbeds a lot more Scottish culture and language that Shakespeare’s world distinctly lacks.

However, despite all these great elements that I’m sure many readers and theatre-lovers will enjoy, this play still wasn’t for me personally. It was a short and easy read but the majority of it had me feeling bored. I think it’s because there wasn’t much to analyse from the perspective of a literature student. Perhaps if I got to see it live on stage I’d find more enjoyment in it. I don’t really recommend this play, but I do appreciate parts of it and Greig’s messages as a writer.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I love to read about older Scotland!

Well I have had to read this play for school and well all I can say is I am so glad we are! my teacher could not have chosen a better one!

This is first piece of work by David Grieg I have read and it is safe to say he is brilliant and I want to read more! The way he incorporated the story of Macbeth - he pulled out very minor details, BUT it was so effective and it was very easy to link these details. Also I just want to mention the speeches within this play they are just, well they are beautiful and it really makes you think and analyse what is really going on within the play.

Lastly is the use of the imagery my favourite had to be the soldiers being compared to the forest - "A forest of English yew, each branch of which can bend and twist but when it is knitted together in a thicket - it is impenetrable - a sword cuts one branch and another springs up to take it's place."

The characters and plot where very strong and also humour was added throughout which was a bonus and worked nicely in contrast to the very dark and serious note within the play.

[Nicole Craswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I think this is one of those things that starts to actually get really interesting once you start really analyzing it. On my first read through I didn't love it, I mean I didn't hate it either, I just didn't find it all that interesting. But I was reading it for a class and once we started to go in depth and really start to analyze characters in class, this got so much more interesting.

The first act is probably my least favorite since it's mostly army politics which I don't find that entertaining. But once we really got into looking at Grauch and her personality and her motivations I was getting into the story.

I definitely would say that I find Grauch to be the most interesting character, especially if you compare her to her characterization in Macbeth. It's just interesting to see how her main motivation has shifted from wanting personal power to wanting to fight for and protect her people. She's kept most of her manipulation skill, we just see her use it in very different ways and for very different reasons.

This isn't something that I ever would have picked up if it weren't required for school, but I'm kinda glad I read it.

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dunsinane is a sequal to Macbeth and plays as a cogent study of power, militaristic ideology, and the politics of occuption.

Siward, an English general from Macbeth, hears throughout the play that he should return to England because he does not understand Scotland, its people, its tribalism, or its politics. Siward desperately wants peace, but he is ill-equipped to grapple with Scotland's chaos. Greig draws a not-so-subtle parallel between the Scotland of Dunsinane and the Iraq of The United States' War on Terror. This allegory may appear a little tired, but Greig is principally interested in the shifting nature of an individual's ethical and philosophical principles. Like Iraq, the Scotland of Macbeth is a perfect place to dramatize this tension because, as we are reminded, Scotland is a place "[where] nothing is solid."

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Più che 3 direi 3,5.

"You seem to think peace is a natural state, Siward, and conflict its interruption, but the truth is the exact opposite. Peace is what the sea looks like in a dead calm – a rare and beautiful moment – something impossible – a glimpse of perfection before the wind comes back again. You can no more force peace into existence than you can wander across the surface of the sea stamping the waves flat."

"You're a good man, Siward. It would have been better if you weren't. There would have been much less blood."