The Day
Andrew Farrier
I've been communicating with Jams about the script for the mystery
plays at Christmas. This is what I told him:
I'm looking at three main sources of text: the York Cycle, the Towneley
Cycle and the Chester Cycle. I also have the text of the N-town Cycle
but haven't started working with it yet. So I spent enough time with
the texts this morning/last night to get some ideas of starting points.
The primary events we see in the advent range are:
- Caesar ordering the deaths of babies (I think. I thought it was
Herod who did this, but between Middle English and middle of the night
I had trouble discerning.)
- the annunciation and Mary accepting her role
- Joseph doubting Mary
- Mary visiting Elizabeth
- an angel visiting Joseph
- angel visits shepherds
- the magi hear the news and see the star
- Mary and Joseph flee into Egypt
- Herod (does something)
- and of course the birth
Each of these is not necessarily a separate play. The division of the
action is quite different from one cycle to the next and all of them
will need significant editing in any case.
As to how we address these, I'm thinking--
Caesar's bit is maybe best left to narration unless one of the other
cycles has a livelier rendition than the Towneley one.
We would likely show the annunciation.
Joseph doubting Mary is frankly pretty funny, at least in the Chester
Cycle, and can be brief, and then the angel visiting him is a necessary
conclusion to that.
Mary visiting Elizabeth, as far as I can tell, is only significant
because Elizabeth was the first one to say "Hail Mary, full of grace,"
so as far as I'm concerned it can go.
There's a good rendition of the shepherd bit.
I haven't read the magi element yet, but they're important and it adds
to the journey element, so I imagine it'll fit in well.
Fleeing into Egypt, we'll see about.
Herod, probably keep for the sake of tension.
The birth, leave out, since it's coming later on.
The structure I'm leaning toward is like so, and this is ignoring
practicality for now:
We start with Joseph doubting and show everything concerning the family
all at once. We show all the travelers. The shepherds on one hand,
the magi on another, Herod on the third hand that someone in the world
must have. That justifies us moving from one place to the next and
gives a sense of moving toward something, with promise and mystery and
danger all built in. The transitions and narration fill in the details
and focus on the questions everyone must have-- the rich magi and the
poor shepherds alike are summoned to see this person who is prophesied
to bring the end of the leaders of the world. The final event we build
to is the annunciation, taking it in medias res to the most crucial
event. That puts us at five events over maybe four sites-- the
annunciation should happen in or very close to the church, and the
shepherds or magi might fit in the graveyard. As to actual scripts,
the only one I'm fairly certain of is the Second Shepherds' Play and I
haven't really checked out the competition for that, either.
I'll figure out detail as I get more time to read. But the themes I
really want to emphasize are the journey and the mystery the whole
process must have had for the characters at the time-- hence showing
the Annunciation last and having only the idea of the Star as a
distant, concrete but inscrutable symbol of whatever important thing is
happening.
Toss any questions my way.
--Andrew
Andrew Farrier
mysterious Wakefield Master, are also potential script elements. I
declare, I'll be forgetting my own name next.
