The Oxford Medieval Commentary Network is pleased to present a plainchant workshop on 24 April 2025, 3-4.30pm in Christ Church. All are welcome; no prior experience necessary. Please sign up here or email cosima.gillhammer@lmh.ox.ac.uk
When? 26 April 2025, from 12 noon. Where? St Edmund Hall, Queen’s Lane, OX1 4AR
Come One, Come All! Free entry, no booking required.
On Saturday, 26 April 2025, a cycle of medieval mystery plays will be performed by various troupes around St Edmund Hall’s grounds. Medieval mystery plays were performed throughout the Middle Ages by and for everyday townspeople, and we’re excited to put on quite a day of shows for you!
Worried that you won’t understand the performances done in medieval languages? Never fear! Each play will be accompanied by a modern English prologue, which will help to summarise the play.
12 noon: Old Testament Plays (Front Quad):
The Fall of the Angels (Angels of Oxford) – Middle English
Adam and Eve (Oxford German Medievalists) – Hans Sachs, German
The Flood (The Travelling Beavers) – Middle English
Abraham and Isaac (Shear and Trembling) – Middle English
1.30pm: New Testament Plays (Churchyard):
The Annunciation (Low Countries Ensemble) – Middle Dutch
The Nativity (Les Perles Innocentes) – Marguerite de Navarre, French
The Wedding at Cana (Pusey House) – Modern English, with Middle English archaisms
The Crucifixion (The Wicked Weights) – Middle English
The Lamentation (St Edmund Consort) – Bordesholmer Marienklage, Low German and Latin
The Harrowing of Hell (The Choir of St Edmund Hall) – Latin Sequence
3.30pm: New Testament Plays Continued:
The Resurrection (St Stephen’s House) – Middle English
The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins (Clamor Validus) – Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, Latin and modern English
The Last Judgement (MSt English, 650–1550) – Modern English
6.15pm: Evensong (Chapel)
No tickets or booking is required, and it is free to attend. You are welcome to drop in and out throughout the afternoon. All performances will take place outside, so please dress comfortably for the weather conditions. There will be two small tea breaks, at around 1.15pm and 3.15pm.
If you have any questions about the cycle or the performances, email the co-heads of performance: Sarah Ware (sarah.ware@merton.ox.ac.uk) and Antonia Anstatt (antonia.anstatt@merton.ox.ac.uk). And look out for updates to our website, where detailed information about the individual plays will be published.
For a trailer of the type of Medieval Mystery play which awaits you, have a look at the extract from the Towneley Last Judgement play performed for a HistoryHit programme about the Apocalypse
When? 28 March, 18:30–20:15
Where? Research Centre, Thatched Barn, Christ Church Meadow
The anonymous English Enterlude of Godly Queene Hester (c. 1529) is a fascinating play, unperformed since the 16th century. Ostensibly in praise of Esther, heroine of Jewish history, the play is actually a political satire about the demise of Cardinal Wolsey. The fall of Wolsey, who had been the monarch’s right-hand man, was a key moment in the reign of Henry VIII. Assuerus, King of Persia, stands for Henry, while Aman, the model of the evil counsellor, for Wolsey. Henry’s wife, Katherine of Aragon, is idealised in the figure of Hester, who fills a traditional role for virtuous royal women by interceding with her husband, but also boldly argues that queens should exhibit the same virtues as kings and can perfectly well govern kingdoms when their husbands are away fighting wars! She thus anticipates the strong secular heroines of Shakespearean comedy.
Originally, the play would have been performed by a boys’ company so it is appropriate that it will be staged by Edward’s Boys. This company, from King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, has, over the last two decades, revolutionised our understanding of the early modern repertoire. Alongside the English Enterlude, they will also present a short purimshpil, a Jewish folk play. The purim plays (still a living tradition in Yiddish) tell the story of Esther in a very different mode, celebrating the rescue of the Jewish people by their heroine in farcical style. The production is part of the WOMARD project, which explores connections between Jewish, Christian and Islamic Theatre and is sponsored by the SNSF.
The performance will be preceded by free talks, on Esther in Reformation Europe, and the purimshpil:
16:00-16:45 Professor Cora Dietl, talk on ‘The Esther tradition and Reformation in medieval and early modern Europe‘
16:45-17:15 Rabbi Bex introduces the purim tradition, and a Q and A session with Bea Baldwin
When? 2 May 2025, 6-8pm
Where? Old Library (drinks) and Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (performance)
Come one, come all! Prepare to worship the power of a good shit and marvel at the agonies and ecstasies of excrement!
The year is 1320 in the stinking town of Netherhole. A young nun feels the hand of God clutch her guts, an ambitious Earl issues a dangerous decree, and a ghost rises from the river. Doctors, priests and rumours descend and Netherhole’s fortunes are changed forever.
The Netherhole Martyr is a play recounting a year in the fortunes of the people of Netherhole, a Yorkshire town in the grip of religious fervour after a young novitiate enacts a painful communion with the divine through her constipated bowels.
This semi-staged reading of the play, held in the spectacular Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East at St Edmund Hall, celebrates its recent publication by Strange Region Press. Written in shades of Donne and Swift, the text of this surreal and macabre work by Good Friends for a Lifetime is fully illustrated by Sigrid Koerner and Hannah Mansell.
The event is free to attend and no booking is required. Copies of the book will be available to purchase. The event will begin with drinks in the Old Library at 6pm, followed by a performance in the Crypt that will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Maeve Campbell, Minna Jeffery and Lily Levinson are Good Friends for a Lifetime. They met on the MA Text and Performance at Birkbeck and RADA. Their first production, Shades of Mediocrity, about friendship, the cult of male genius and Simon & Garfunkel was performed at Camden People’s Theatre and the Old Red Lion. They were associate artists at Bathway Theatre, University of Greenwich, in 2021.
Strange Region is a publisher of experimental writing by artists, novelists and poets. They endeavour to use publishing as a tool to celebrate writing as performance, as architecture , as a mechanical component of creative practice and as a space to enjoy the perilous corners of the human experience.
We have made it to 8th week, and the sun has come out in celebration. The full booklet of weekly events, as always, can be found here. A few brief notes to begin:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Opportunities
Until next term,
Tristan
The Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference Committee is pleased to announce the program for their twenty-first annual conference, held at the Maison Française d’Oxford on 24-25 April 2025, on the theme ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’. Interested in attending? Register for in-person or online attendance on the conference website.
THURSDAY, APRIL 24
9:00-9:25 Registration (in-person)
9:25-9:30 Opening remarks
9:30-11:30 Session 1: Saints and Staging
11:30-11:45 Break with refreshments
11:45-13:15 Session 2: Eating and Abstinence
13:15-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 Session 3: Relics, Textiles, Amulets
16:00-16:15 Break with refreshments
16:15-17:15 Keynote Address 1: Dr Helen Gittos, ‘Christianity before Conversion’
18:30 Conference Dinner (optional)
FRIDAY, APRIL 25
9:30-11:30 Session 4: Death and Grief
11:30-11:45 Break with refreshments
11:45-13:15 Session 5: The Body
13:15-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 Session 6: Rites of Passage
16:00-16:15 Break with refreshments
16:15-17:15 Keynote Address 2: Professor Aleks Pluskowski, ‘Reaching for the Otherworld: Ritual and Religious Practice After the Baltic Crusades’
17:15 OMGC 2026 Theme Selection + Closing Remarks
SATURDAY, APRIL 26
12:00-17:00 Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle (St Edmund Hall)
Welcome to week 7: the full booklet, as always, can be found here. A few important points to draw your immediate attention to:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Upcoming
Opportunities
When? 26 April 2025, 12noon-5.30pm. Where? St Edmund Hall, Queen’s Lane, OX1 4AR
Preparatory Meeting: 13 March 2025, 5-6.30pm, St Edmund Hall (ask at the Lodge for directions to Henrike’s office)
The days are getting longer, the sun has come out for three days in a row (!), and the flowers in Teddy Hall are starting to blossom. That can only mean one thing: the Medieval Mystery Cycle is approaching!
Less than two months from now, on 26 April, between 12 noon and 5.30 PM, the Front Quad and churchyard of St Edmund Hall will be transformed into Paradise, Golgatha, Hell, and much more, as a selection of groups from all walks of academic life will perform a collection of twenty-minute-long medieval plays based on different Biblical stories. No tickets or registrations are required — just drop in and out of Teddy Hall.
We will start at noon with ringing the chapel bell for the Creation and Adam and Eve. Leaving Paradise and exiled to Earth, we will then see the Flood and Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. From those Old Testament stories, we will move to the New Testament, and physically from the Front Quad to Teddy Hall’s unique graveyard. There, we will witness the Annunciation and Nativity, before seeing adult Jesus in action at the Wedding at Cana. The Crucifixion (featuring a purpose-built cross!), Mary’s Lament, Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins, Mary Magdalene, and Resurrection will take us through Easter. Finally, the Last Judgement will conclude this day of medieval storytelling.
As always, the selection of plays and languages will be fantastically diverse, taking us from Hans Sachs’s German to Marguerite de Navarre’s French, from Hroswita of Gandersheim’s Latin to the Middle English of the Digby Mary Magdalene. Other plays will be performed in Modern English, including the world premiere of the Wedding at Cana, based on only 1.5 surviving lines in the York cycle. But worry not: all plays will be introduced by a Modern English prologue, so no language skills are required to follow along. And of course, the language of theatre is universal …
Curious? Intrigued? We are holding a meeting for all creatives and those who’d like to be one at Teddy Hall on Thursday of 8th Week (13th March), 5 PM. This will be a great opportunity to meet some of the other people involved, chat to the organisers, have a look at the performance spaces, and discuss any open questions.
Alternatively, email Sarah Ware (sarah.ware@merton.ox.ac.uk) and Antonia Anstatt (antonia.anstatt@merton.ox.ac.uk) if you have any questions or are looking for a way to get involved. In the meantime, watch this space and be on the lookout for updates to our website for the 2025 cycle, which we will update periodically as our thespians prepare to take centre stage — or, in this case, quad!
Friday 28 February 2025, 5pm -7pm
Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College, Turl St, Oxford OX1 3DR
Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar Hilary Term 2025
Lower Lecture Room, Lincoln College
Week 6: Friday, 28 February 2025, 5pm
Speaker: Dr Carolin Gluchowski (University of Hamburg)
All welcome
The Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group meets to discuss everything to do with women’s writing in the medieval period. We hold a variety of events throughout the term. All welcome!
| Week 1, Saturday 25th January | Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group Trip to the British Library’s exhibition “Medieval Women” (London) – The registration period for subsidised tickets has passed but if anyone wants to purchase their own tickets for the same time slot and join our group, please get in contact with Kat Smith: katherine.smith@lincoln.ox.ac.uk |
| Week 3, Wednesday, 5th February | Special Event: Medieval recipe books at the Oxford Bodleian Libraries. A collaboration between Critical Food Studies Network, Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group and the Bodleian Academic Engagement – Horton Room, Weston Library |
| Week 6, Friday, 28th February | Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar: Dr. Carolin Gluchowski (University of Hamburg) – Breaking Walls, A Graphic Novel: Reflections on Public History (provisional title) – Time & place tbc |
| Week 7, Friday, 7th March | Medieval Women’s Writing Research Seminar: Ved Prahba Shama (Independent Researcher) – Medieval Indian Women’s Writing (provisional topic) – Online 12.30pm (GMT), registration details tbc |
Please see the individual dates for time and place of the session.
Stay up to date with events by joining our mailing list or following us on X @MedievalWomenOx.
Convenors: Katherine Smith, Marlene Schilling and Santhia Velasco Kittlaus.
Funded by the “TORCH Critical-Thinking Communities” fund.
Invitation to a tea party with LIVING STONES on SATURDAY 15 MARCH 3.00-4.30 in the Church Hall, Church Way, Iffley OX4 4EG.
Come along and find out about LIVING STONES. Meet the Living Stones volunteers. Join in: Living Stones is looking for volunteers of any age, background or beliefs
Living Stones is the heritage and educational arm of St Mary’s, the church at the heart of Iffley village, Rose Hill and Donnington. Volunteers welcome visitors to the church. They also run activities, events and talks on its history and architecture. They will start welcoming visitors to the church on Sunday afternoons on Palm Sunday, 13 April. They also have three events planned:
SATURDAY 10 MAY 10.00-4.30 – Drawing Iffley Church, day-school with artist Micah Hayns.
SATURDAY 17 MAY 11.00-7.15 – Day of chant in celebration of St Dunstan, patron saint of bellringers and music. The day ends with a special service in the church sung to music composed by St Dunstan and first written down in the 12th century.
SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER – Patronal Festival for St Mary the Virgin, picnic and family fun.
