Final preparations and brother-bloggers

Oh Lord. Like an archetypal diarist apologising to his/her long-neglected diary I have once more let too long pass between posts (actually that sounds like Stephen Fry apologising for not podcasting often enough). Anyway, as per usual much has happened in the interim, all of which I shall get to anon. But most recently, and in a way most excitingly, the Belfast Mystery Players have been namechecked and well and truly plugged by a fellow traveller of the blogosphere. For those of you who haven't yet visited, Alan in Belfast - http://alaninbelfast.blogspot.com/ - is a great blog surveying all sorts of goings-on cultural, social and political in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the wider world. A fan of most things mystery-play he's taken an interest in our humble endeavours and posted this entry, for which we are much obliged - http://alaninbelfast.blogspot.com/2009/05/belfast-mystery-play-starting-in-front.html.

In other news our Facebook page (check out the widget to the left), which was created just before the last entry, has proven surprisingly popular. In the great tradition of social-networking it has gathered us many friends and friends-of-friends (also a nifty way of reminding everyone of rehearsals).

Speaking of which we've completed our weekly rounds of piecemeal rehearsals, and in the coming week will finally get to bring everyone together to run through the whole thing, from start to finish, over and over again until it's a well-oiled machine. It's pretty well-oiled already, and we've been delighted with the progress of rehearsals. Last Tuesday we got to rehearse with our super-talented Expositors for the first time, which was fantastic. While I co-wrote the Adam and Eve scenes, I wrote the Expositors' scenes myself. In fact, while by their very nature the various episodes of the Mystery Plays are based on biblical and traditional sources, the Expositors' scenes (which are dotted between each episode, explaining and commenting-on, Muppet Show style, each scene) are the only elements of the performance completely made up from scratch. So seeing them performed for the first time filled me with a mixture of pride, anxiety (should I change that line!?) and relief - luckily what I found funny inside my head is also funny outside. We've also put some great work in on everything else, from the Creation and Fall of the Angels, through the Creation and Fall of Man down to the Nativity.

But what is a play without its props? To that end, a few weeks ago myself and Lorraine took a trip into Belfast city-centre to raid the famous Elliotts for some inflatable sheep, five pairs of angel wings and two pairs of devils horns (not to mention the pair of each I'd previously purchased). We also got some funky white bathrobes for Adam and Eve. Lorraine meanwhile procured labcoats and a baby-doll, I picked up Angelic clipboards and a microphone and this week shall secure a teapot and teacups, biscuits (all will be revealed) and some buckets to collect money for charity - admission may be free but you're not getting off that easy! Also the instrumental music has been thoroughly rehearsed and the two songs which bookend the performance are sounding rather lovely.

So all is set for the last week and hopefully the big day. Fingers crossed God smiles upon us (the play's about Him after all) and makes sure it doesn't rain...

Eamon

Facebook and Rehearsals

As you can see from the widget on the left, we've officially joined facebook. Considering the fact we've had this blog for a while now, pretty much the entire duration of the project, I honestly don't know why we didn't set it up before. Luckily Siobhan, one of our ultra-talented cast-members, suggested we embrace modern technology last night after rehearsal. I duly embraced, and woke up to find we have something like fifteen friends. Very flattering. Judging by the fact that I've never even met some of those who have befriended us, there appears to be a good bit of interest in the project, which bodes very well.

As for rehearsal, last night saw us gather various members of the team after our much-deserved Easter break. Unfortunately, as God, the Devil and various Angels couldn't make it (what an odd sentence) we couldn't rehearse the Creation of the Universe, but we did give the Creation of Man and the Fall of Man a thorough going-over. Bridget, one of our Expositors, understudied very nicely for God and Siobhan, in addition to getting her own Angelic role spot-on multi-tasked brilliantly as another Angel (which involved having a conversation with herself) and the Devil. Gerard, our Adam, was suitably excellent as a childlike, innocent and, occasionally-terrified-at-the-prospect-of-damnation, Adam. And Will, one of our ultra-talented writers and now officially a director had at least me if not everyone else in stitches with his Kenneth Williams style 'oohhs' (which I had forgotten I'd written into the script). All in all a productive evening.

On Wednesday it's the Joseph and Mary show again, here's hoping it goes as swimmingly.

Eamon

Graven Images

Once more a frighteningly long stretch of time seems to have grown between the last post and this one. Since then, as usual, plenty has happened. Most interesting of all developments perhaps arose from the appearance of our very own Chris Jackson at the Borderlines conference in Dublin. While I was delivering an exercise in esotericism, Chris' paper on modern interpretations of the mystery plays (which made reference to this project) apparently inspired delegates from the University of Cork to stage their very own production. Very flattering news for our project. Chris also expertly plugged our performance. Remains to be seen if any of the conference delegates make the trip to Belfast for the play.

As it is currently the university's Easter break rehearsals are on a temporary hiatus (more anon). Our international cast are, at the moment, all over the world (literally) and most of the team are busy working away on essays (none of which, this time, purport to medieval drama) but plenty of preparation is being done for the big day...

Which we are now delighted to confirm will be Saturday 30th May. The performance (one night only!) will begin at 8pm, in front of the main gates at Queen's University, Belfast. We hope to gather the audience in front of the imposing educational edifice that is the university, and hopefully keep them entertained, before moving along to a number of sites on campus for each scene. The performance, we hope, will last approximately 1 hour - after which, at a location to be confirmed, we will retire for a wrap-party.

That's the housekeeping, now the fun stuff. Below is the lovely poster we've knocked together for the extravaganza. The pastel-illustration was produced by our very own Lorraine Clarke, with the text and general technical wizardry applied by Chris. Take a peek:

This poster has already begun popping up around Queen's and elsewhere. Should you feel the urge to indulge in some freelance advertising, please feel free to print said poster and paste it or pin it up in your office / shop /l ibrary etc. The image above might be a bit small for such purposes, so if you would like a larger copy please don't hesitate to email and ask.

In the last post I summarised the very enjoyable process of recruiting our cast. Since then, we assembled for our inaugural table-read, which thankfully went off without a hitch. Over an assortment of beverages alcoholic and non-, crisps and mini creme eggs, we read through the whole play (myself trying and hilariously failing to fill in for one of our female Expositors who unfortunately couldn't make it). We were very impressed with the contributions of all our cast and suitably comforted as to the viability of the project. Since then rehearsals have begun in earnest, including some rehearsal-time on-site, which despite the interruptions of children-at-play, football supporters, huskies and generally bemused passers-by worked very well. Luckily, everyone will be back again next week, at which point rehearsals will gather apace. In the meantime, we have the prospect of purchasing props to look forward to - including lab-coats, dressing-gowns, inflatable animals, toy-babies and God knows what else. Ah the theatre. Happy (belated) Easter!

Eamon

A cast, at last!

Technically there have been many more developments than the title would suggest, but that is probably the most exciting, and most significant. Following auditions last month, we have now recruited ten 1st year drama students to fill the majority of roles. Myself, Chris, brand-new team-member David and photographer Niall were all impressed by the auditionees and those we ultimately cast were really the cream of the crop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the makeup of an arts degree, all who auditioned and thus all who were cast are female. For the majority of characters this is no bad thing - indeed, for parts such as God and various angels it is actually rather beneficial. Moreover, having a female Joseph will add an interesting tragi-comic tension to 'Joesph's Trouble About Mary'. However, for the characters of Lucifer, Adam and the angel Gabriel we felt we really needed male actors, and so they have been filled by members of the organising team - David, Gerard and yours truly respectively.

And so, this week, we met with all of our cast to distribute scripts, go over some key points and to give a tour of the locations we hope to use for the final performance. Before that, however, went a lot of organisation and effort - not least in the scriptwriting department. For a number of reasons already discussed we have now settled upon a somewhat contracted dramatic scope, and thus are focusing on the Creation and Fall of the Angels, the Creation and Fall of Man and the Nativity. Given the thematic overlaps of these episodes - arguments between couples, both Divine and human; the aspiration to and fall from grace - we have accordingly titled the performance 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God'. Those of you who appreciate the reference should feel very proud, you have impeccable musical taste!

Next week shall be both incredibly busy and something of a week off. Most of the team are popping down to Dublin for Borderlines XIII, an international postgraduate conference for medievalists founded at Queen's University, Belfast but since on a rotating schedule around Irish universities. Myself and Chris shall both be delivering papers on medieval drama - his a wonderfully theory-based adventure, mine on a typically niche-interest topic as the woefully under-appreciated Cornish drama. However, amongst all this we hope to confirm the time, date and place for the performance and thus to finalise, print and distribute the fantastic poster drawn by team-member Lorraine and art-directed by Chris. All being well, the poster, script-extracts and possibly some photographs will be up on the blog next week. Next Monday also we intend to hold the inaugural table-read, which shall indicate whether this whole venture will be a towering triumph or a well-intentioned disaster. Fingers-crossed!

Eamon

Plan B

In the past week, a number of developments, both positive and negative, have occurred in the development of the Belfast Mystery Plays project. On the positive side, we have recruited (with much appreciated assistance) a number of volunteers from the School of Drama at Queen's University, Belfast, to fill the fascinating and challenging roles of our Biblical protagonists. These volunteers will be auditioned this coming week (a novel experience for most of us on the organising team) after which we will begin rehearsing. On the negative side, the time-restrictions of the academic year have meant that, for this year at least, we have had to scale down our plans - thus we will be performing less material than we had previously hoped, and will not be able to mount each play in site-specific Belfast locations. However, we have now decided to save our original, ambitious plans for next year, in order to do the material and all involved the justice it deserves. This year's performance, then, will hopefully be something of a prelude, allowing us to identify problems and plus-points for next year. Nevertheless, this year's performance will still be (fingers-crossed) an accomplished and entertaining experience with a great cast and soundtrack. Watch this space.

Eamon

The Resurrection

Apologies to whoever may be reading this for the lack of activity in recent weeks. Unfortunately/Necessarily the plays have been on hiatus since Christmas while the team researched, wrote and handed in assignments (a number of which discussed the traditions of Mystery Plays, incidentally). Now however we have no excuses, and so we intend to hit the ground running. This week we hope to get scripts finalised and the process of casting begun. So there should be, fingers crossed, much more to talk about here in the coming weeks. We also hope to start generating a bit more publicity with this website, so we will be hopefully linking to other relevant pages and spreading the word about the project. All that remains is to wish a belated Happy New Year!

Eamon

'The Coventry Carol'

In an attempt to provide this nascent blog with something both festive and relevant/useful/educational I have reproduced below the lyrics of 'The Coventry Carol':

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay,
Thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Oh sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling, for whom we do sing,
By, by, lully, lullay

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay,
Thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight
All children young to slay

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay,
Thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

A woe is me, poor child for thee,
And ever mourn and may
For thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay,
Thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Although familiar to most people as a Christmas carol, the song was originally part of the Coventry cycle of Mystery Plays, sung during the Shearmen and Tailors' pageant of 'The Slaughter of the Innocents'. Of course, it is entirely possible that, during the Middle Ages, the song would also have been sung at Christmas. However, unlike today it was not rigidly connected to one season, or one occasion. Indeed, the song's role in the Mystery Plays' performance of the 'Christmas story' at Whitsun or Corpus Christi is congruent with the collapsing of conventional temporal conceptions enacted by the Cycle drama.

Whatever its history as a Christmas song, 'The Coventry Carol' is notable for two things. Firstly, it has great literary and historical value as one of the few surviving musical elements of the Cycle drama. Secondly, its beautiful lyrical and musical devices wonderfully reflect and engage with the drama of the Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant.

If you have to hand a recording of the song* or if you already know the tune, listen to the chorus. In the verses, and in the second line of the chorus, "By, by, lully, lullay" goes up and down the minor scale, returning to the minor root on the last syllable. In the fourth line of the chorus, however, "By, by, lully, lullay" goes up and down the minor scale, but instead of returning to the minor root, the final note is raised or sharped to end in a major key. This device, known as a Picardy third, was often used in Medieval music. It is less common today, although 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley does employ it: in that song, the first verse after a chorus is often raised from the minor key to the major. The Picardy Third's distortion of our musical expectations and its production of an uneasy, bittersweet tone is entirely appropriate for this song, and the play from which it derives. Although tragic, although evil, the Slaughter of the Innocents is a part of the narrative which heralds the arrival of the Son of God. Thus, like Judas' betrayal of Christ, its import sits uneasily between the horror of itself in isolation, and the glory of the destiny it helps fulfil. This unease and bittersweetness is perfectly mirrored in the tonally ambiguous effect of the Picardy Third in 'The Coventry Carol'.

On that note (!), on behalf of everyone at The Belfast Mystery Plays may I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Eamon

* Plenty of people have recorded 'The Coventry Carol' over the years, from the Kingston Trio to Kiri Te Kanawa. However, one of the best is that recorded by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band on their 1986 album A Tapestry of Carols. An excellent, more modern arrangement (albeit one now 21 years old) is by Alison Moyet, from the 1987 compilation A Very Special Christmas. Incidentally, A Very Special Christmas also includes Sting's fantastic, motet-like rendition of 'Gabriel's Message', another carol with distinctly medieval roots: it is a song derived from 'Gabriel From Heven Came', itself an English version of the Latin 'Angelus ad Virginem', famously mentioned by Chaucer in 'The Miller's Tale'.

For additional information on 'The Coventry Carol' (and some other songs possibly used in the Mystery Cycles) please visit:

http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/coventry_carol-1.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A8378733