Presentation is Er'thyng

There is something to be said for watching a play be acted instead of simply reading the lines.  As I watched the various acts and casts of the York Mystery Theatre plays, I was surprised to find myself drawn into the stories!  I’ll admit, I thought that they were going to be boring—the same stories I had heard since childhood, just with an Olde English twist.  

Well, they were.

 

But it was precisely the twist that drew my attention.

I was amazed at the way the actors really used their lines in these works.  Each line was made up not only of words, but of the emotion the actor was trying to express.  When Satan appeared, he was cocky and taunting, quick to anger and each of the words “he” said (because he was portrayed by a woman once!) had a menacing bite to it.  When he says, “And but thou do I will you won't,” we can hear the challenge in his assertion—an effort to mock Jesus into begrudging him prideful victory.  In the last act, a woman literally bewails her fate after Judgement Day.  The despair in her voice, in fact, tells the story better than the words on the script:

Alas we wretches that are forlorn that never yet served god to pay, but oft we have his flesh forsworn. Alas, alas, and wellaway. What shall we wretches do for dread, or whethir for feardness shall we flee. When we may bring forth no good deed before him that our judge shall be. To ask mercy us is no need. For well I wott, damned be we.

If I were to read this to myself, it would probably have a tone of resignation or depression.  I mean, judging solely by the text, there are no exclamation marks or cues that give sign of intense feeling. But the actress’s mourning is anything but solemn as she cries over her damnation.  I LOVED IT.

Speaking of, can we please talk about this fabulous alliteration?  The whole play is one string of similar sounds after the next.  This was and is a technique used by actors and writers to memorize their lines with ease.  Once the actor remembers the first word, the rest follow suit with like sounds.  I watched, impressed, as Thomas delivered a lengthy monologue.  He recites:

 
Alas for sight and sorrows sad. Mourning makes me mazed and mad.

That’s only a snippet, but the pattern continues throughout the passage.  I also found it interesting that the actors used each set of alliterated words to express a different emotion or build upon a previous 

one.  The phrases felt complete…does that make sense?

To conclude, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this assignment.  Thank heavens for that script on the sidebar though, because otherwise I wouldn’t have understood a thing!  Ye Olde English maketh not senseth.

United Through Drama

I was really unsure what to expect from watching the York Mystery Play Highlights.  For those who don't know, The York Mystery Plays are a retelling of Bible stories put on by guild members (aka people from the town who specialize in a trade) of York England.  The version that my class watched is from 1998, and it was the first time in hundreds of years that the city of York participated.  It was very interesting to watch the city unite through many different aspects of the Mystery Plays.

York, England

 There were several things that really contributed to my enjoyment of the Mystery Plays.  I think the first thing that really stuck out to me had to be the wonderful rolling sets and backdrops that were used.  At the beginning of the movie clip, we were informed that some of the players only used tools and processes that were available to those who lived in York in the 1500s, and I feel like that united modern players and medieval players. Additionally, most of the sets had little moving parts that really contributed to the story that was being told.

York Mystery Plays, 2002

The second thing that I noticed was the audience's interaction with the players.  Surprisingly, many of the scenes were a bit humorous; it was unexpected, but I rather enjoyed it.  The audience also appreciated the humor and laughed along.  I also really noticed audience/player interaction when a guild retold the story of Christ's crucifixion.  Rather than be confined to the limits of the rolling set, the players in that story wandered out into the audience and really engaged the people watching.  I enjoyed watching the players and audience members unite in that fashion.

I thought that the Bible stories were very well told.  One of the biggest surprises to me was to see Satan, in the Adam and Eve scene, cast as a woman.  I don't think that necessarily detracted from the meaning of the play as a whole, but it sure was an interesting surprise!  Whether intended or not, I feel as if that casting choice was a very modern twist on an ancient story.  It is always interesting to see the unification of old and new.

Female actor portraying Satan, 1998