"We’ll set a new king in Dunsinane and then summer will come and then a harvest and by next spring it will be as if there never was a fight here."
— Siward, already Tempting Fate in the first scene.
Dunsinane is a 2010 Historical Fiction play by Scottish playwright David Greig, which serves as a (very, very belated) sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth, albeit one which tries to take a more broadly 'historically accurate' view of 11th century Scotland, and ditches the supernatural elements. It tells the story of Siward, the Earl of Northumbria and commander of the English army sent to depose Macbeth and install the exiled heir Malcom III. A decent, albeit naïve, stubborn and somewhat dense man, he engages in a well-meaning (at least, initially) effort to bring peace to the embattled country and smooth Malcom’s transition to power. However, he finds himself hopelessly out of his depth when faced with suspicious, resentful locals, many of whom are still loyal to the old king, a language he cannot understand, a tangled web of political alliances and old grudges between the clans, and the various machinations of Gruach, the dead king’s widow, who would much prefer her own young son on the throne. It’s not gonna end well.
It's also worth mentioning that beside the primary anti-war message the play is also intended as a very clear allegory to then-contemporary British interventionism in the War on Terror, suggesting that getting involved in complex foreign conflicts is a very bad idea and noting that many of the worst burdens of war are borne by the soldiers.
Dunsinane provides examples of:
- A Father to His Men: Deconstructed with Siward. He cares so much about the lives of his men that he resorts to increasingly drastic and brutal measures (such as burning civilians alive as an intimidation tactic) to try and end the war, sacrificing any semblance of morality in the process, which of course ends up getting many more of his soldiers killed.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While the English army is lying in a field, waiting to ambush some Scots loyalists, Edward, one of the soldiers, has his leg smashed when a cow stands on it... But of course, he can't cry out for help as that would give away the soldiers' position. He is stuck in the field for an entire day, and later dies of exposure.
- Downer Ending: Macbeth and Lulach are dead, along with hundreds if not thousands of Scots and English soldiers alike, and the conflict shows no sign of ending. Siward has been stripped of his command in disgrace, his sole remaining companion being the Boy Soldier, now a Shell-Shocked Veteran.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Egham, who has no issues with selling out his own side or enslaving children, is disturbed when Siward starts burning captured Scots alive when they refuse to give him information.
- Similarly, Malcolm ends up outright firing Siward because his brutal tactics are only making the conflict worse - the lord of the village where Siward burned the inhabitants entered the war on Gruach's side shortly after, despite being neutral before.
- Exact Words: After Siward finds and kills two of Macbeth's soldiers hiding out in a barn, Malcolm is convinced the farmer is a rebel and urges Siward to Make an Example of Them. He refuses, suggesting that the man was probably threatened by the soldiers. Malcolm appears to concede and promises Siward he'll "help in any way I can"... And as soon as Siward's left the room, he instructs his own goons to kill the farmer and his entire family: after all, he never said exactly what the 'help' would be.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Siward seems especially dense when it comes to dealing with anyone who lies, however unconvincingly.
- He’s very insistent that the English army’s goal is to bring peace to Scotland, not to Rape, Pillage, and Burn – yet he recruits Egham, a shameless war profiteer, as his lieutenant and doesn’t even dismiss him after he is caught lying about looting Dunsinane Castle to his face. Of course, this comes back to bite Siward in the ass because Egham betrays his own side to Gruach for large amounts of cash, helping to sneak her son Lulach, Macbeth’s rightful heir, out of Dunsinane, which exacerbates the conflict by granting a figurehead to the loyalists.
- He demonstrates the same pig-headedness with Gruach: after she seduces him and tries to convince him to marry her and become King of Scotland, what does he do? Why, propose a marriage between her and Malcom (who she made abundantly clear that she hates) to unite Scotland. Perhaps this is why she turns her wedding into a bloodbath, turning the situation in Scotland from simmering conflict to full-on war. Did he really expect her to go along with it?
- Jerkass Has a Point: In the first Act, Malcolm makes numerous, very thinly veiled suggestions for Siward to kill Gruach. He refuses to execute her, a prisoner, in cold blood, but given the amount of trouble she causes later on, had he followed Malcolm's advice, a lot of lives would have been saved.
- Karma Houdini: The slave-taking, castle-looting, greedy, traitorous Egham gets no comeuppance, and even gets himself promoted to commander of the English forces after Malcolm dismisses Siward for his unnecessary brutality.
- Manipulative Bastard: Malcolm. He obtains the support of England and its powerful army by claiming that Macbeth was a weak and unpopular king, had no wife or heir, and the clans were aching for him to return to power. Of course, Siward soon discovers that Macbeth was at minimum grudgingly respected by most of the Scots, he was survived by a wife and heir, and the clans are consumed by bitter factionalism with at least as many against Malcolm as for him. But by then, the English forces are in too deep to back out.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: King Malcolm presents himself as a weak and foolish ruler interested only in wine, women, and partying, but he’s actually a cunning schemer who realises that if the clans don’t see him as a threat, they’ll be too busy fighting each other to challenge his authority… Allowing him to enjoy his wine, women and parties in peace.
- Rightful King Returns: Discussed by Malcolm: after Siward executes Macbeth's son Lulach, the true heir to the throne, Malcolm chews him out, knowing full well that there will now always be a chance of 'Lulach' emerging from the woodwork to challenge his authority.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: The English soldiers, and Egham, will use the word "fuck" in practically every other line.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Boy Soldier has become one of these by the end of the book, haunted at night by the images of his dead comrades.
- War Crime Subverts Heroism: Siward, after assaulting a Scottish village, burns every man in the community alive after they refuse to tell him the location of Lulach, signifying just how far he has descended into brutality. Although, such things weren't that unusual at the time since most (formal) laws of war wouldn't exist for another few centuries.
- War Is Hell: Made abundantly clear. War is confusing, exhausting, reshapes whole cultures around itself, and inevitably ends up haunting the lives of anyone involved in it.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Both Egham and Malcolm call out Siward for his extreme brutality in dealing with the Scots (read: burning captured civilans alive).
- Malcolm also berates Siward for executing Lulach, Macbeth's son and rightful heir to the throne... Because he's canny enough to know just how much weight this lends to the Scots' cause.
And then there is only white.
