New Mummers Play
Here is the text of a thoroughly updated Mummers Play which I’ve just written, including a migrant worker, a modern fanatic and St George as AA man! The play should be performed on regional radio (Shropshire/Stoke/Hereford and Worcester) available via the Internet, live and on Listen Again. I think this will be on Sunday evening, December 23rd. If you’d like time/date, do please email me via the Home page of my website, and I’ll send you the details as soon as I have them.
I do have a family connection with mummers. My father’s family were shepherds for generations, and I inherited a penny notebook of Victorian sheep cures. Amongst the drenches and wormers was the Lady’s part from a Lincolnshire mummers’ play. So either my great-grandfather or one of his shepherd friends had the drag part! This Lincolnshire Lady is very outspoken:
“All I want is a nice young man!”
This all encouraged me to play fast and loose with the tradition – which is, I believe, what traditions are for!
I’ll have the copyright for a few years at least. I’m very keen to spread work around. If anyone wants a short modern Mummers Play, they are most welcome to use it (or any part of it) a) with NO FEE b) to adapt it as they wish. The only condition is that I would love to know if it’s being performed. I can always be contacted via my website www.alisonbrackenbury.co.uk
Here are the mummers!
CHRISTMAS FOLK: THE MUMMERS RETURN
by Alison Brackenbury
YOUNG WOMAN
& MAN We are the lovers
SHE One black
HE One white
BOTH We fight half the day, then we dance all the night.
HE But now we are moving
SHE With caution and care
BOTH Since our child will be born
In the cold of New Year.
SHE And how will I cope
In a small rented flat?
HE My love and my dear
It’s too late to mind that.
SHE But now, with our car in a ditch,
We have come
HE To this barn, where the cows’ breath
Smokes timeless and warm-
(LOUD MOO.)
SHE (STARTLED.)
When will the van come?
HE George said half an hour-
SHE Who stands, in the moon’s
Shy blue gleam by the door?
(MUSIC. INSTRUMENTAL OPENING OF COVENTRY CAROL.)
FIRST CHILD I am the child
I am one in three
Quiet on the edge
Of your shining country
No tins in the cupboard
No gifts on the tree.
SHE Child, what is your name?
FIRST CHILD (FADING.)
It is Poverty-
(MUSIC. EASTERN EUROPEAN. ?GYPSY FIDDLES?)
HE Who is that, with new papers
Clutched in his hand?
FIRST MAN I am the stranger
Working your land
In the long field’s rain
In the factory’s heat
With a few words of English
A cramped room to sleep
I travel, I build,
Snatch a few hours’ rest.
HE What is your name?
FIRST MAN (FADING.)
Please call me your guest-
(MUSIC. OPENING OF MARS, FROM HOLST’S PLANETS.)
SHE Who is it that glares
With a moon-blinded face?
SECOND MAN I come from God!
Any state, any place
Can make me, a White House,
A hut by a well.
God keeps Heaven for me,
For my enemies, Hell.
SHE I will not ask your name.
I am frightened of you.
SECOND MAN Your fear is my friend.
(FADING.)
I have more work to do-
HE Who is that standing
So far from the door
Ringed by the soft rain
Familiar, unsure?
(MUSIC. FIRST CHORDS OF STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN,
LED ZEPPELIN.)
SECOND CHILD I am your child.
No, do not step near
I am your future
The sky you must clear
The light you must switch off
The bridge you must build
I am your gamble
The seeds you have spilled.
Do not make the poor rob,
Let your guest be my friend,
Be patient. God’s soldier
Dies man in the end.
My mother, my father
Hold to the dance-
SHE Come here!
HE What is your name?
SECOND CHILD (FADING.)
I am your chance-
(LOUD VEHICLE NOISE.)
SHE What is that engine?
HE What is that light?
SHE Is the guest back-
HE - God’s soldier,
Wild as the night?
SHE The fumes rise like dragons-
HE Ghost? Saint? Or a man?
THIRD MAN Wake up! Happy Christmas!
SHE It’s George!
HE And the van.
SHE (SPEAKING)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
HE (SPEAKING)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
BOTH &
THIRD MAN (SINGING.)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
THIRD MAN (SINGING.)
And a Happy New Year.
ALL (SINGING. WITH ANY EMBELLISHMENTS YOU WANT!)
Good tidings we bring
To you and your kin.
We wish you a Merry Christmas
CHILD-LIKE IF
POSSIBLE.
OTHERWISE,
ALL, LOUDLY, And a Happy New Year!
Alison Brackenbury www.alisonbrackenbury.co.uk
s
I do have a family connection with mummers. My father’s family were shepherds for generations, and I inherited a penny notebook of Victorian sheep cures. Amongst the drenches and wormers was the Lady’s part from a Lincolnshire mummers’ play. So either my great-grandfather or one of his shepherd friends had the drag part! This Lincolnshire Lady is very outspoken:
“All I want is a nice young man!”
This all encouraged me to play fast and loose with the tradition – which is, I believe, what traditions are for!
I’ll have the copyright for a few years at least. I’m very keen to spread work around. If anyone wants a short modern Mummers Play, they are most welcome to use it (or any part of it) a) with NO FEE b) to adapt it as they wish. The only condition is that I would love to know if it’s being performed. I can always be contacted via my website www.alisonbrackenbury.co.uk
Here are the mummers!
CHRISTMAS FOLK: THE MUMMERS RETURN
by Alison Brackenbury
YOUNG WOMAN
& MAN We are the lovers
SHE One black
HE One white
BOTH We fight half the day, then we dance all the night.
HE But now we are moving
SHE With caution and care
BOTH Since our child will be born
In the cold of New Year.
SHE And how will I cope
In a small rented flat?
HE My love and my dear
It’s too late to mind that.
SHE But now, with our car in a ditch,
We have come
HE To this barn, where the cows’ breath
Smokes timeless and warm-
(LOUD MOO.)
SHE (STARTLED.)
When will the van come?
HE George said half an hour-
SHE Who stands, in the moon’s
Shy blue gleam by the door?
(MUSIC. INSTRUMENTAL OPENING OF COVENTRY CAROL.)
FIRST CHILD I am the child
I am one in three
Quiet on the edge
Of your shining country
No tins in the cupboard
No gifts on the tree.
SHE Child, what is your name?
FIRST CHILD (FADING.)
It is Poverty-
(MUSIC. EASTERN EUROPEAN. ?GYPSY FIDDLES?)
HE Who is that, with new papers
Clutched in his hand?
FIRST MAN I am the stranger
Working your land
In the long field’s rain
In the factory’s heat
With a few words of English
A cramped room to sleep
I travel, I build,
Snatch a few hours’ rest.
HE What is your name?
FIRST MAN (FADING.)
Please call me your guest-
(MUSIC. OPENING OF MARS, FROM HOLST’S PLANETS.)
SHE Who is it that glares
With a moon-blinded face?
SECOND MAN I come from God!
Any state, any place
Can make me, a White House,
A hut by a well.
God keeps Heaven for me,
For my enemies, Hell.
SHE I will not ask your name.
I am frightened of you.
SECOND MAN Your fear is my friend.
(FADING.)
I have more work to do-
HE Who is that standing
So far from the door
Ringed by the soft rain
Familiar, unsure?
(MUSIC. FIRST CHORDS OF STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN,
LED ZEPPELIN.)
SECOND CHILD I am your child.
No, do not step near
I am your future
The sky you must clear
The light you must switch off
The bridge you must build
I am your gamble
The seeds you have spilled.
Do not make the poor rob,
Let your guest be my friend,
Be patient. God’s soldier
Dies man in the end.
My mother, my father
Hold to the dance-
SHE Come here!
HE What is your name?
SECOND CHILD (FADING.)
I am your chance-
(LOUD VEHICLE NOISE.)
SHE What is that engine?
HE What is that light?
SHE Is the guest back-
HE - God’s soldier,
Wild as the night?
SHE The fumes rise like dragons-
HE Ghost? Saint? Or a man?
THIRD MAN Wake up! Happy Christmas!
SHE It’s George!
HE And the van.
SHE (SPEAKING)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
HE (SPEAKING)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
BOTH &
THIRD MAN (SINGING.)
We wish you a Merry Christmas
THIRD MAN (SINGING.)
And a Happy New Year.
ALL (SINGING. WITH ANY EMBELLISHMENTS YOU WANT!)
Good tidings we bring
To you and your kin.
We wish you a Merry Christmas
CHILD-LIKE IF
POSSIBLE.
OTHERWISE,
ALL, LOUDLY, And a Happy New Year!
Alison Brackenbury www.alisonbrackenbury.co.uk
s
posted by Alison at
6:49 PM
3 Comments:
Very lovely, thank you
droll and brill. I wish I could see it acted.
Quick comment from Alison (Brackenbury)
Thanks very much for comments!
The mummers did make it on air. Genevieve Tudor, who presents an excellent folk programme, Sunday Folk, on regional radio, rounded up her colleagues at Radio Shropshire, and a marvellous child, and did a January (broadcast)production. The recorded cows were very good too..
I've also heard of a family performing it at Christmas (while, shamefully, I was probably asleep on a sofa); a teacher was interested in using it, and a local friend of mine thinks the WI may have a crack at it next year. I suspect they will be very good, but they might need to borrow Genevieve's cows.
I must admit that I'd like to see it with the kind of darkness and smoke effects I saw at a recent concert (Show of Hands).. Still, here it is, and anyone who wishes to have a go, with or without fumes or Friesians, is still most welcome to use the text. Do let me know how it went.
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