The Chester Plays

Over the next few weeks, I'll have finally finished archiving the first five Exploring the Chester Mystery Plays events, publishing audio for the Nativity, Kings, Shepherds and Herod plays.  I've also found a wealth of video footage I'd forgotten was taken and will edit some of that together.
Not only that, but I'll be announcing dates for a return of the events, completing the cycle by the end of the year - phew!
But to celebrate finally getting this together, here's an old audio clip I found from a show I did in 2007, Medieval Mysteries.  It was a Christmas Nativity show, using sections from various mystery plays - but I opened with applicable verses from the Chester Banns.  The audio quality is terrible - I recorded it on a mini-disk player using a pair of headphones as the microphone - which goes to show how far the world has travelled in but a few years.

And, if you want to listen to the complete set of the Exploring the Chester Mystery Plays events to date then they follow after the banns on this audio player.

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...

The Rickinghall Fragment

A short extract from a place not a million miles away from where I'm recording - Bury St Edmunds.  It was found on the back of a scrap of paper with details of Rickinghall in Suffolk, at one time owned by the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds - hence it's name.
There are two extracts, dating from the early fourteenth century, in theory of the same speech by a King, one in Latin and Anglo-Norman and the other in English.  The two speeches are similar in content, but not direct translations of each other.  The Anglo-Norman version is slightly longer than the English, and gives more context and stage direction.  The King is a tyrant, a Herod figure or something similar, who is speaking to this court and there is a direction for a messenger, who doesn't speak.
I've recorded just the English version, for obvious reasons, using this slightly modernised version of the text below.  I've tried not to change too much, leaving words that have no easy modern equivalent as writ.  I hope this makes the speech more understandable, without losing too much of the original.

Lordings 
Withouten lessing [falsehood]
Ye witten well that I am King
Here of all this land.

Therefore I will that mine baronage
Ye that been of great parage [parentage – high birth]
That he come in to mine will;
For all that arn in burw [burgh] or town
I will he witten my resoun [understands my account]
And that is right and schil. [reasonable]

listen to ‘The Rickinghall Fragment’ on audioBoom

For this recording the King was played by Malcolm Hollister, with thanks.

A Complete Astrophil

And so, nearly a year late, the recordings of all the sonnets and songs from Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney are now online.  It's been a difficult process recording them - some are very good, some are so so, and many are very similar to the one before or after it.
It is a complete story, the love of a man for a lady, one which is doomed, and his roller coaster emotions.  It has a truth to it, in that it is clearly true to the authors feelings.  That isn't to say the text isn't problematic.  Stella is revered, says little and is there to be won.  The authors jealousy is corrosive and unpleasant.  It is the product of a masculine culture, his idea of love being positively adolescent.
Problematic as it is, and surprising to me because I chose these poems almost at random, I can see a performance piece for it.  With a paired down selection of the material and a small team I could create a really dark, anguished and critical piece of theatre about this mindset.
Whether I will, time will tell.
In the meantime, here is the complete sequence for you to judge for yourself.

God's Promises by John Bale - Act 7

Discussing the play with John the Baptist

In late 2013 I started to record God's Promises but quickly got very behind.  Since those first tentative steps I have upgraded my equipment and, to some degree, feel I want to start all over again.  However, we did record the introduction, the final scene and the closing speech and these are now available to listen - in a rough edit.  There were several textual issues which I don't think we have succeeded in clearing.  Firstly, the text is very dense.  It features a lot of argument, the kind you might expect from a theologian, especially one such as Bale who had the Protestant axe to grind.

The Prologue: Baleus Prolocutor
So, the opening and closing speeches are to be spoken by Bale or someone as him.  (We decided to ignore this in the recording, so that there was at least one female part in the production.  It also meant we could use the same actor to read stage directions without them being confused as another character.)  They are outside the text, the author directly addressing his audience, or perhaps more appropriately, his flock.  Making this Tudor text clear was a challenge and one which, in the short time span available, I don't know has succeeded.  But you may judge for yourself.  Hopefully anyone thinking of reading the play can use the recording to help guide them into the text.

listen to ‘God's Promises - by John Bale. Baleus Procolutor’ on Audioboo

Act Seven:  John the Baptist
We spent a little longer recording the completed scene seven.  The play is a running argument, starting with Adam and ending with John, encountering various Biblical figures along the way.  All argue with God to forgive mankind, and only with John does God relent - though, of course, he has already relented, having already sent Jesus into the world.

Cecil Qadir as John the Baptist

John begins by pleading with God that the worst excesses of man are past - this is a long list of people and names from the Bible, showing up the virtue of many good men.  When God reveals his plan, and that John will be Jesus' messenger to the world, John says he won't be of any use, he is as a child.  God then gifts him a golden tongue (this is a literal stage direction) and he then ends the play with a speech about his mission, ending in a song of praise.  We couldn't think of a way of turning the golden tongue into an audio event and used a narrator, and as we have no budget for music at this time, this is also indicated by the narrator.
Again, as we rehearsed this scene we had a long discussion about clarity.  The final recording is clearer than the opening and closing speeches, as it is a dialogue.  If you read the precis first, I suspect what is being said is clear.  However, out of context, without reading the above, I suspect most people will struggle.
This isn't, I hope, just because of our performances.  I suspect that the text, its very denseness, will always make this play a difficult proposition.  It is, oddly, harder to follow than an earlier play - it is caught between the more rigid rhyming verse of the medieval street theatre and the later public theatre voice.  That doesn't make the play uninteresting, just difficult, and I hope listening will reward your effort.

listen to ‘God's Promises by John Bale - Act 7’ on Audioboo

The Epilogue: Baleus Prolocutor
I find, listening back, that the closing speech is much clearer - but that could just be me.  It's possibly tempered by the fact that I've gone through the play before listening to it and am more attuned - which would also be the case for the audience.  It's a reminder of the message of the play and the importance of the Protestant interpretation of Christianity.

The light of our faith makes this thing evident,
And not the practice of other experiment.

The other being the Catholic interpretation.  This is a polemical work, designed to reference the Catholic drama of the middle ages but retooled for Protestant ears.  This kind of religious propaganda is short lived, lasting from the reformation to the reign of Elizabeth, with both sides of the divide flinging drama of this sort at each other.  It was divisive, dangerous and could not last.  Perhaps the reason why these plays have fallen out of favour is this lack of context.  The play doesn't need to involve inner conflict, because the conflict was off stage, the danger is in the existence of the play, not necessarily in the dramaturgy.  The challenge for a modern producer is to find a way of making these stakes evident.

listen to ‘God's Promises - by John Bale. Baleus Procolutor (Epilogue) ’ on Audioboo

The Reynes Extracts - An Epilogue

Here is the second of the Reynes extracts – I have previously blogged about the other A Speech of Delight.  This second fragment is an epilogue – perhaps to the same play, but it could easily be for any play of the period – a generic plea to the audience to forgive the players if they weren’t any good and not report them if they’d fluffed their lines – and some productions had strict rules over the players of plays, with fines exacted for being incompetent.  This short epilogue also mentions a church ale, which follows on from the production, suggesting both play and the ale were fundraisers for the local church.  One of the things we see with small scale medieval playing was it was often done to raise money for specific causes – the church roof for example.  Times don’t change.  I'm planning to use this speech in a production next year, popping it onto a play that doesn't have a proper ending.  That way this little speech will get to live in the real world once again - possibly the first time in a production for many hundreds of years.

listen to ‘An Epilogue - A Medieval Fragment’ on Audioboo

An Epilogue

Now worshipful sovereigns that sittyn here in sith

Lords and ladies and Franklins in fay

With all manner of obeisance we recommend us right

Pleasantly to your persons that present be in play.

And for your suffering silence that ye have kept this day

In playing of our play without any resistance

Dearly we thank you with might as we may

And for your laudable listening in good audience

That we have had this day.

And if we have passed any point in our playing

Or moved any matters in our saying

That should be to your persons displeasing

We beseech you report it not away.

For truly our intent was well to do

And if any fault be there found in it is our negligency

And short time advisement cause it also

For little time of learning we have had sickerly

And every man is not expert in eloquency

To utteryn his matter gaily unto your audience.

Wherefore we beseech you of your great gentry

The best to report of us in our absence

In every ilke a place.

Sovereigns all insame [in company]

Ye that are come to see our game

We pray you all in Gods name

To drink ere ye pass.

For an ale is here ordained by a comely assent

For all manner of people that appearyn here this day

Unto holy church to the increasement

All that exceedeth the costs of our play.

The Ashmole Fragment

The Ashmole Fragment is a tiny little scrap left over from a play now lost.  It really is blink and you’ll miss it.  It features one character - Secundus Miles (second soldier) – who speaks his loyalty to his Emperor – to defend him from any gedling (rascal) and then to a high priest – offering his dagger to Mahound (or in modern terms Mohammed – a name generally used as an oath in medieval drama, ironically, by anyone who was a bit pagan).  It isn’t clear what the surrounding play was – something with a tyrant and priests, and whilst Herod springs to mind, there are plenty of other biblical stories that could use the same motif.

listen to ‘The Ashmole Fragment’ on Audioboo

SECUNDUS MILES:

Sure Emperor, dread ye no thing!

If there be any fresh gedling [rascal]

That would you grieve with any thing,

In word or in deed,

By the beard I shall him shake

That his skull shall all to crake [crack]

And his soul from him take

And roast him over a glede. [fire]

To the high priest

O Mahound, thou great God and true,

Lowuely [handsome] and also meek of hue,

Offer to thee I will new

A dagger that is good and fine.

And all else is lost.