Exploring N Town

We're beginning our Exploring sessions again - and this is the beginning of one of those long time slow burn projects that will possibly never end.  We're focusing on the N Town plays - that strange and mysterious composite text made up of various East Anglian mystery plays.  We're going to take our time working through the plays, recording as we go, with the long term aim of staging/recording them - that is, we're working towards producing a stage production, which we will record, rather than do separately as part of our current studio recording set up - which is what we've been doing with the Chester cycle (which is a cycle).
We're interested in exploring not just how the bits of plays might have been originally performed, but also how they work as a text for personal use - as a devotional work.  How the edit works towards a new work, whilst nodding to its past.  How this will come out in the end, we have no idea.  But it'll be fun finding out.

Anyone can come along to these Exploring sessions - either as a reader, a performer, or just to sit and listen/comment on the text.  If you're interested in coming along, do let us know so that we can plan accordingly.  These sessions are recorded for the podcast so that anyone can follow up on our work.

We will be working from various editions of the text - the Early English Text Society editions - and there is a very good online Middle English Text series edition you can look at here https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/sugano-the-n-town-plays. Other versions and editions are available and maybe referred to at intervals.  Part of the point of these sessions is to create our own working text - trying to make our own editorial choices as to how we create our show/recordings.

These first March sessions will focus on the first six 'plays' (Creation to Moses) - though we may get ahead or massively behind - and we may do some compare and contrast with other plays as we go along.  There is no forced pace being made.  It's planned that we'll return in April, though precise dates are TBA.

Exploring: The N Town Plays
Saturdays 9th, 16th, 23rd March 2019 from 10am till 12pm in the Jetty at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury.
For more information contact us at: admin@beyondshakespeare.org