Backstage Photographs from Pride & Dame

To accompany the back stage photos for the medieval drama from the Magna Carta in Clare celebrations we include the programme notes for Pride and Dame Sirith.

THE PRIDE OF LIFE:

The Pride of Life is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, surviving play in the English language. 

There are many caveats to the above sentence.

Firstly, there are other surviving texts which come from about the same period in time, though it’s very difficult to put an exact date to these things.  Pride comes somewhere around 1350. 

Secondly, it doesn’t quite survive - not fully.  There are big gaps in the text we have and the second half / third is completely lost, so it can’t be classed as an extant play. 

Thirdly, though in English, the text is Irish in origin – at the very least by adoption, as this is where the manuscript was copied in the form which has come down to us.

So, on the face of it, not a very appropriate entertainment for a medieval banquet in 1215.

But what else is there?  When I was first approached to do something for the Magna Carta celebrations I racked my brains as to what was most appropriate.  We haven’t got any surviving plays in English prior to 1350 – and I didn’t think that the average persons knowledge of Latin would be up to it.  Thinking a little sideways I considered some later plays about King John.  But all three King John plays from the early modern period have one major deficiency. 

They don’t mention Magna Carta.  At all.

So I made a compromise – the earliest play that was doable and which features at least a thematic link to the story of King John.  The Pride of Life is, as the title suggests, about pride and a prideful King at that.  It resonates nicely.

For all the incompleteness of the text, it is performable thanks to the detail afforded by the banns that open the play – a prologue that tells the whole of the plot, including the ending.  To make the play more whole I have added a section of another early English play – from an East Anglian Mystery play about the death of Herod – to round off the story dramatically, as well as a playless Epilogue that has survived as a fragment.  It is possible this Epilogue has never been performed as part of a production for six hundred years as, being without a play to perform before it, why would anyone use it?  One can never be certain of such things, someone else might have had the idea before me, but it’s an exciting thought.

The Pride of Life has been performed more recently than the mid 14^th Century, though I haven’t had a chance to hunt out any specific productions – either student or professional.  The BBC produced a reasonably accurate version for the Third Programme in the 1950’s as part of their The First Stage series.  It used the prologue throughout the play (which, short as it was, was cut down and heavily modernised) to cover the gaps in the text.  Sadly this recording is only currently available if you can find the LP release of the series (which thanks to ebay I have) – which I doubt will get a wider airing.  I have therefore recorded our cast performing our text of the play and this audio recording (and video footage we hope to make of the last rehearsals and performance) will be put online for free to introduce interested people to the play.

As part of this production I have endeavoured to retain as much of the original text as possible and not overly modernise it.  We have only cut four lines from the extant play and altered some readings where the corrupted text gave me some license to be bolder with changing lines.  I have written two additional lines to one speech where a gap in the text doesn’t complete the rhyming scheme – though this reconstruction is based on patterns found in other plays of the period.  For those who are interested the original play ends with the final lines of Mirth, just as Death kills him.  Sadly none of the original dialogue for Death survived, which is a shame as he’s a marvellous conversationalist in most medieval texts.

I would like to thank the Magna Carta in Clare committee for hosting this Before Shakespeare* production and for producing such a welcoming atmosphere.
[*Our original incarnation - Ed]

Some rehearsal shots for Pride of Life - first full tryout with costumes.

Adam reading from his medieval mobile phone...

A Magna Carta Mumming

The first part of the evening is a completely true account of the story of Magna Carta – told in the fashion of a Mumming.  Mumming is a slippery term, it can mean a lot of different things depending when it was produced and who it was for.  It could involve song, dance or drama.  We’ve used a loose folk ritual to create something new, something special for this event.  It isn’t an historical re-enactment; it is a reimagining of a form designed to illicit a few cheap laughs, created in the spirit of the medieval entertainments of the day, not in absolute fact.

The Mummers Are: Michelle Allen, Robert Crighton, Pat Curtis, Katie Landon, Beth Norris, Clarissa Seeley, Alban Smith-Adams & Kate Terry.  Costumes by Mary Denton.

Dame Sirith

Edited and performed by Robert Crighton

Dame Sirith isn’t quite a fable, if only because it doesn’t have a moral.  It tells the story of a monk, Wilekin, who takes a fancy to the wife of a merchant, one Dame Margery.  When the merchant is away the monk tries to woo Margery but she’s having none of it and sends him away with a flea in his ear.  About to give into despair he meets a friend who recommends Dame Sirith the hend (wise) to help him. 

He goes to her and, after a little bartering, she agrees to get Margery to relent.  To do this she uses a small dog and a jar of mustard... but we wouldn’t want to ruin the ending for you by saying anymore. 

Unlike our very fake Mumming, Dame Sirith is genuinely medieval, appearing towards the end of the 12^th Century, and so is something that would have been about at the time of King John.

This version is only lightly modernised, so features many old words (gange is one of our favourites) and unfamiliar phrasing – but hopefully through the modern day translation service of the storyteller’s backchat it will be both clear and amusing.

And a few shots from backstage during the Mumming - and our strange array of Mummers!

Pride and a Dame

I'm putting the final touches to the rehearsal script for The Pride of Life and a new project Dame Sirith. Both are being produced for the Magna Carta celebrations in Clare and we had our first read through on Sunday.
They are two very different pieces and editing them has been incredibly difficult.  The Pride of Life is the easier because it is later (mid-fourteenth Century) but even so is one of the earliest dramatic texts we have in English.  The read through was a testing ground for legibility.  Using a projector to save printing a script that was inevitably going to change, we tentatively attempted the play, stopping occasionally for clarification.  There was a certain amount of fear - many of the people in the room didn't know each other and the text was difficult - but we got to the end and nobody had died.  (Except the King of Life, of course.)  Then I mixed up the readers and we had another crack - and this time it flowed better, people had started to click into the medieval mind.  That isn't to say I was going to leave it there.  My pad was covered in notes for areas of text that weren't working, words that might need changing, sentences that we just too obscure.
I have rules for editing a play of this type, but they're not hard and fast.  The play, ultimately, is the thing - if it doesn't work, then we will make changes.  But we start with as light an edit as possible.  Broadly the rules are these.
1. Modernise and standardise the spelling where possible.  Much of the text will be clearer once the common words that exist today have been given normalised spelling.  We're not attempting original pronunciation, so the only words which might cause problems will be the rhymes at the end of lines - generally I choose the most obvious rhyme sound and follow that, but sometimes you have to put your hands up in despair and say, it just doesn't work or it will need to be changed.
2. Do not change sentence structure, syntax or grammar - unless meaning is completely mangled.  An audience will tune into the unfamiliar structure after a few minutes and the actors, through their own skill and expert understanding of the text, can signpost most confusions.  However, there are always a few exceptions to this rule - in The Pride of Life there are several references to eyes, which seem to be commonplace tropes from the time, a truncated version of a cliched turn of phrase, which has fallen out of use.  Even reading my notes on what the lines mean (the same reference is used I think twice) I'm at a loss as to what they really mean.  If you need a minute to explain a three second sentiment, then you're on a loosing wicket and might as well draw stumps and walk back to the pavilion.  I.e. Change or cut the line.
3. Sounds matter.  Try not to lose too much of the texture of the sound of the text when striving for sense.  Sometimes intent and the pure power of the sound is enough.  Which brings us to...
4. The Teen and Tray rule.  Where possible retain words which have no modern equivalent - so long as there is enough context for the meaning to carry.  This is exemplified by teen and tray (spelling various) which have appeared in the Chester Plays and again in The Pride of Life.  Broadly they mean sorrow and care, but there are no close modern equivalents.  To change them steps the editor into the role of translator.  The context in which these words appear make their meaning clear, the sentences often repeat the sentiment in other still used words and the actor make make the meaning of the words apparent.  Say them out loud and they sound like they mean - they represent the essence of what can be preserved in a modern production of an ancient play.  The Teen and Tray rule is the line this project tries not to cross to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater - because if you're just going to rewrite the play, what's the point of staging it in the first place?

Producing Dame Sirith is another matter entirely.  As a much earlier text (late 12th/early 13th Century - i.e. relatively contemporaneous with King John) it flits between complete clarity, to dangerous obscurantism.  The version that appears in the Penguin Classics edition is a translation, and I can understand why.  It's not an easy read.
However, my approach to Dame Sirith is not to translate, but to commentate.  Whereas in The Pride of Life we will play the final edit with a straight bat (to continue my cricket metaphor), for this piece of storytelling, we'll muck about a lot around the text.  We'll probably have one or two 'medieval' storytellers, telling it as it is writ (my edit follows the above rules on the strict side), we'll then have other/s simultaneously translating the story, commenting on it, insulting the other storytellers and generally throwing bad jokes around.  This will be a work in progress for the next couple of months - I don't know precisely how it will shape up in the end.
More on these projects soon - hopefully you'll start getting a taste of the texts with some audio/visual soon.
Popped round to our venue for the shows this morning and took a few snaps...

Clare Town Hall - we're mostly not using the stage itself - the performers will be among the audience

A mini minstrel gallery - where music will pour forth...