Watch the release of the films of the Mystery Plays and celebrate the end of the academic year with Oxford Medieval Studies! Since OMS was just awarded a prize for the Mystery Plays from the ‘Engagement with Research’ fund, there will be liberal quantities of drinks (including the famous Tiddly Pommes applejuice) and nibbles as well as discussions on how to continue the dramatic adventures in the future. Do come along to have your say whether, when, and how to stage the next Mystery Cycle!
When? Thursday, 19 June 2025, 4.30-6pm Where? Farmingdon Institute, Harris Manchester College
Film premiere will start on 19 June 2025, 4:45pm. Join us from anywhere in the world to comment live on the premiere!
16:45 – Opening 16:48 – The Fall of the Angels 17:00 – Adam and Eve 17:21 – The Flood 17:42 – Abraham and Isaac 17:58 – The Annunciation 18:06 – The Nativity 18:32 – The Wedding at Cana 18:47 – The Crucifixion 19:02 – The Lamentation & The Harrowing of Hell 1 19:17 – The Harrowing of Hell 2 19:20 – The Resurrection 19:42 – The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins 20:07 – The Last Judgement
The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2025 are over – thank you to everyone who made this day possible! Read on for some pictures and impressions of a wonderful day. You can access the full programme, scroll through film stills by the camera team, and watch it on the OMS Youtube channel.
01:12 – The Fall of the Angels (Angels of Oxford) – Middle English 13:45 – Adam and Eve (Oxford German Medievalists) – Hans Sachs, German 34:56 – The Flood (The Travelling Beavers) – Middle English 55:02 – Abraham and Isaac (Shear and Trembling) – Middle English 1:11:14 – The Annunciation (Low Countries Ensemble) – Middle Dutch 1:19:26 – The Nativity (Les Perles Innocentes) – Marguerite de Navarre, French 1:45:53 – The Wedding at Cana (Pusey House) – Modern English, with Middle English archaisms 2:00:30 – The Crucifixion (The Wicked Weights) – Middle English 2:15:15 – The Lamentation (St Edmund Consort) – Bordesholmer Marienklage, Low German and Latin 2:30:53 – The Harrowing of Hell (The Choir of St Edmund Hall) – Latin Sequence 2:33:30 – The Resurrection (St Stephen’s House) – Middle English 2:55:14 – The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins (Clamor Validus) – Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, Latin and modern English 3:20:10 – The Last Judgement (MSt English, 650–1550) – Modern English
The fourth iteration of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays took place on 26 April at St Edmund Hall. And it was a truly marvellous day! A total of 13 plays were put on by about 150 participants – actors, directors, singers, costume designers, musicians, and many more. Throughout the day, about 350 audience members popped in and out of Teddy Hall, some staying for shorter periods, others for several hours or the whole day. Audience members and participants included a wonderful range: undergraduate and graduate students and academics from within and without Oxford, a full children’s choir, tourists, and members of the public found their way to Teddy Hall and partook in the medieval shenanigans.
And what shenanigans they were! This year, we are particularly proud of the incredible diversity of languages, plays, and different approaches on display. But see for yourself … (All photo credits are at the bottom of the post)
The day started – how could it be otherwise – with a trumpet blast from Henrike Lähnemann herself (Picture 1).
Once again, we were expertly guided through the day by Jim Harris, the Master of Ceremonies. Armed with Bruce Mitchell’s doctoral gown and the ceremonial scroll (consisting of the baking roll to the chaplain of St Edmund Hall, half a coat hanger and numerous layers of paper and sellotape), he introduced each play with a modern English prologue (Picture 2).
We began at the beginning, with the creation of the world and The Fall of the Angels,performed mostly in Middle English, but with modern English elements, and in a modern office setting.
Picture 3: The Holy Trinity is being fawned over by the two good angels … but trouble awaits: the two bad angels are getting arrogant, before their inevitable ejection from Heaven.
From the angels, we moved swiftly on to humans: next was the German Adam and Eve play by Hans Sachs, featuring a particularly good use of the well (the two humps underneath the spare green coat are Adam and Eve, about to be created).
Picture 4: All could be well in Eden, if it wasn’t for Lucifer, Belial, Satan, and the Serpent conspiring.
Picture 5: Adam and Eve might have fallen into desperation, but the cast have good reason to be proud of themselves, having made it to the front page of both the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times.
Skipping a few biblical ages, we next saw the Flood, presented in the Middle English Chester version.
Picture 6: The flood has come! Luckily, Noah and his family are safe on the ark, together with the animals – expertly made and portrayed by the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches.
The Old Testament concluded with the Middle English York version of Abraham and Isaac.
Will he really do it? Abraham is getting ready to sacrifice his oldest son, Isaac (Picture 7) … but fear not! The angel of the lord approaches and shows him a sheep to sacrifice instead – the little guy, hand-crocheted by one of the cast members, rapidly became the true star of the day (Picture 8).
After a refreshing tea break, we moved from the Front Quad into the Churchyard, and from the Old to the New Testament. The fifth play of the day was the Annunciation, or rather Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria (‘The First Joy of Mary’). It was performed in Middle Dutch: a first (but hopefully not last) for the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays!
Picture 9: The angel Gabriel announces the happy news to the reading Mary.
True to the Gospels, the Annunciation was followed by the Nativity. It was a particular pleasure to welcome back Les Perles Innocentes, who travelled all the way from Fribourg to wow us with their expert performance of the Comédie de la Nativité, written by none other than Marguerite de Navarre.
Picture 10: Mary and Joseph are desperately looking for a place for Mary to give birth. – Picture 11: If the stable looked as gorgeous as the library of Teddy Hall, it surely wasn’t the worst place to be born in!
Our next play skipped ahead, showing us the grown-up Christ at the Wedding at Cana. This play was a world premiere, reconstructed from only 1.5 surviving lines in the York cycle!
Picture 12: Panic at Cana – the wine has run out at the wedding! What to do?
Picture 13: Christ is there to save the day and transforms the water into wine. The servants are amazed!
From Cana, we moved straight to Golgotha and a Middle English performance of the Crucifixion. The York Crucifixion, strangely, is a comedy, and the four soldiers crucifying Christ were accordingly equipped with ‘Cross flatpack instructions’ and giant inflatable hammers. Certainly not inflatable, however, was the cross, which was purpose-built just for this production and turned into a much-coveted prop for numerous plays.
Picture 14: The poor, overworked soldiers struggle to lift up the heavy cross.
Once the soldiers had vacated the grassy mound in Teddy Hall’s Churchyard, the mourners came: the three Marys (the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and Mary, Mother of John) and John arrived for the Lamentation, represented by the Bordesholmer Marienklage and beautifully sung in a mixture of Latin and Low German.
Picture 15: Owe, owe nu ys he dot…
Moving directly from the cross to the crypt, we were told about the Harrowing of Hell by the Choir of St Edmund Hall through sung Latin sequences.
Hell having been harrowed, it was time for another tea break, after which we were welcomed back by the angelic hosts of the Choir (Picture 16). And then it was time for some good news: the Resurrection! Performed in the Middle English of the York version, this play truly had it all: sleeping soldiers, lamenting Marys, bickering priests, and a highly enthusiastic angel.
Picture 17: An outraged Pilate commands the soldiers to find out the truth about the rumours concerning Christ’s resurrection. At least Caiaphas and Annas, the extremely well-dressed high priests, are there to back him up. Picture 18: Mary lamenting at the tomb – thankfully, she, too, receives moral support from the angel.
Leaving the Gospels behind, we moved on to the only non-biblical story of the day: The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, performed mostly in (absolutely flawless!) Latin, with a few bits in modern English.
Picture 19: Governor Dulcitius has been ridiculed by his prisoners, the holy virgins Agape, Chionia, and Irena … his embarrassment will not go unpunished.
Picture 20: The two older sisters are burned, while the youngest is forced to watch. But never fear: all three will be rewarded in Heaven for their martyrdom.
Last, but by no means least, it was time for … the Last Judgement! Performed in a modern English adaptation of different Middle English versions, this wonderfully cheerful and funny play was the perfect end for a fantastic day.
Picture 21: Hey guys, it’s Gabe! The archangels Gabriel and Michael open Judgement day, while the soon-to-be-raised souls rest in the ditch between library wall and lawn.
Picture 22: Who will get more souls? Jesus and the angels, or Lucifer and the demons?
And … that was it! Thirteen plays, five languages, two tea breaks, and five hours later, we had travelled all the way from the Creation to Judgement Day, from Heaven to Hell, from Bethlehem to Golgotha, and from Front Quad to the far side of the library.
Our heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who made this day possible: on and off stage, casts, crews, organisers, helpers, and so many more. We are particularly grateful to Jim Harris, our Master of Ceremonies; David Maskell, who wrote the modern English prologues; and Tristan Alphey and the other helpers for their support during the day. This year’s Medieval Mystery Plays are by far the best-documented yet: Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart filmed the entire day; their recordings will be released on the St Edmund Hall Mystery Cycle page at a film launch party at the end of Trinity Term. Ashley Castelino took many fantastic pictures, and Robert Crighton and Liza Graham recorded impressions from audiences and participants for their podcast Beyond Shakespeare.
Of course, what a play really needs is its audience. We were delighted to see so many of you there, and overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback we received. Here are just some of the comments we collected in our visitor book – many audience members had their favourite play from the host of performances:
“Brilliant! Loved the Nativity especially!”
“Great job! Love the Wedding feast!”
“Terrific! Thank you very much. I particularly enjoyed Adam and Eve, and Satan with his acolytes in [the Last Judgement]!”
“Really enjoyed the camp Satan!”
“The singing [in the Nativity, Lamentation, and Harrowing of Hell] was superb. Altogether a delightful event!”
The best audience members are naturally those who were themselves surprised by how much they enjoyed themselves: one person wrote that they had a “very unexpectedly enjoyable day supporting a friend in one play, but then enjoy[ed] all the others!” Many also appreciated the use of medieval languages in keeping these plays “alive” through modern performance and praised the “pace, diversity, and inventiveness” of the troupes, the beautiful medieval setting of St Edmund Hall, and the overall “vibrant and entertaining” environment of the Cycle. One particularly nice comment described our day of performances as “full of whimsy” – made even more whimsical by the little stars they drew around their comment. Thank you very much to each and everyone of you!
Are you sad you missed out? Can you not wait to get back into medieval drama? Watch this space! The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays will be back …
Picture Credits
Pictures 2 and 8: Ashley Castelino
Picture 6: Rahel Micklich
Picture 17: Antonia Anstatt
Header and Pictures 1, 3, 4-6, 9-16, 18-22: Stills from the video recordings made by Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart.
The film crew after the day in Queen’s Lane
Medieval Mystery Plays: Documentation
That’s the summary of the Medieval Mystery Plays – read on for a more detailed documentation of what the different groups did and what each play looked like.
The Fall of the Angels as transmitted in the York Cycle. Performed in Middle English, with some Modern English elements.
Summary
It is the beginning of the world: God creates the Universe and enjoys his own might. The two Good Angels – Seraphyn and Cherabyn – glorify him, while the two Bad Angels bask in their own beauty and power. God names one of them as Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, which further inflates Lucifer’s ego. But he becomes too confident and, supported by the other Bad Angel (Angelus Deficiens), talks about becoming even higher than God himself. God expels the two Bad Angels from Heaven, causing them to fall into Hell. There, they lament their state and blame each other for their downfall. Back in Heaven, God and the Good Angels celebrate, and God creates Day and Night.
About the Performance
This group chose a modern approach to the play. They set the biblical story in a modern office, with God, split into three as the Trinity, representing the leadership board of the company, and the angels their employees. The play was mostly presented in its original Medieval English, but with a twist: after their Fall from Heaven, the two Bad Angels switched to Modern English.
Hans Sachs, Tragedia von schöpfung, fal und außtreibung Ade auß dem paradeyß (1548), adapted by Timothy Powell and Nina Unland. Hans Sachs was a famous German playwright and poet. Between 1548–1560, he wrote 40 religious comedies and tragedies. His ‘Tragedy of the creation, fall, and expulsion of Adam from Paradise’ is an example of a play at the threshold between ‘medieval’ and ‘early modern’ religious drama. It displays many features of emerging ‘early modern’ Protestant religious drama, drawing on the Latin religious dramas of Renaissance humanism, Martin Luther’s reflections on religious tragedy, and the language of Luther’s translation of the Biblical account of the creation and fall of humankind. These elements coexist and interact with numerous elements drawn from medieval mystery plays, especially the extra-biblical episodes involving the three chief devils that keep some of the more light-hearted aspects of ‘medieval’ religious drama alive.
Summary
God creates Adam, then leads him away to show him Paradise. The three angels Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel enter, praising God and the Creation. Once they have left, God and Adam return. God creates Eve, but as soon as the two first humans have left to explore the Garden of Even, three devils appear – Lucifer, Satan, and Belial. They decide to conspire against the humans and call the Snake, who convinces Eve to try one of the apples of the Tree of Life. Eve then gives an apple to Adam; horrified, the two recognise that they are naked. The three devils return and rejoice, followed by the three angles, who weep. Finally, God returns and punishes the wrongdoers: the Snake is made to slither on its belly, Eve is punished with painful childbirth, and Adam with hard manual labour. Then, they are expelled from the Garden of Eden by an angel with a flaming sword.
About the Performance
The entire performance was in Hans Sachs’ original German, except for an English Prologue and Epilogue delivered by the Cherub. The play was performed in Teddy Halls’ Front Quad, with the well serving as the space from where Adam and Eve were created. The Tree of Life was represented by the same cross which, later in the day, served as the cross on which Christ was crucified – an excellent example for the reuse of different props throughout the day. The angels and God were all dressed in liturgical vestments, enhancing their aura of sacrality.
Good Gossips – Amy Jenkins, Rowan Wilson, Siân Grønlie, George Manning
Crew
Director – Minna Jeffrey
Music and Art – St Giles’ Choir, the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches
Text
The Chester Flood play in Middle English. The Chester cycle probably originated in the later fourteenth century, although the earliest written version dates to 1422. In later years, the Chester cycle was performed on Whitsun and took three days to perform in full. The Chester play of Noah’s flood is one of several flood plays in Middle English. It was chosen by this group because it has most on the actual animals (eight stanzas) and because of the ‘Good Gossips’. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten as Noyes Fludde.
Summary
Dissatisfied with humankind, God decides to send a great flood. The only ones to be spared are Noah and his family. Noah is tasked with the building of a great ark, on which his family and two animals of every kind will survive. Noah complies and brings the animals and his family – his wife, his three sons, and one of their wives – on board, just the Earth begins to flood. The ark is on sea for a considerable amount of time, but finally, the rain ceases. God commands Noah and his family to disembark and repopulate the Earth. So far, the story is well known, but what is special about this version is the central role of Noah’s family. Especially Noah’s relationship with his ‘crabbed’ and not at all ‘meek’ wife is a topic throughout. There is also a unique scene with the ‘good gossips’: ‘gossip’ comes from Middle English ‘godsib(be)’. Originally, this referred to either godparents or godchildren, but it came to mean one’s close friends (especially women) and did not take on its current meaning of tell-tale before the mid-sixteenth century. In this play, Noah’s wife is reluctant to leave her friends behind when the flood begins, which is framed as disobedience to God – but modern audiences might feel more sympathy.
About the Performance
Although in fifteenth-century English, this play is fairly easy to understand. The group made very few changes to the language, but read the text with Modern English pronounciation.
Among the most remarkable elements of this performance were the animals, which were portrayed by the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches, who held hand-painted cut-out animals to represent the crowd on the ark. Very helpfully for the audience, the human characters all wore T-shirts with their characters’ names. This group highlighted especially that they felt that the play has a strong contemporary message, given current concerns around extreme weather events, climate refugees, and the denial of climate change, as represented by the good gossips, who ultimately do not escape the flood.
The version of Abraham and Isaac from the York Cycle, performed in Middle English. Specifically, taken from Clifford Davidson’s edition of the York Mystery Cycle, which closely adheres to the text in British Library, MS. Add. 35290.
Summary
To test the faith of his loyal servant Abraham, God sends an angel who commands Abraham to sacrifice his youngest and favourite son, Isaac. Despite his sorrow, Abraham resolves to follow the command. He takes Isaac up a hill under a pretense. Once there, he reveals the truth to his son, binds his hands, and gets ready to sacrifice Isaac, who accepts his fate. At the very last moment, the angel of God re-appears and stops Abraham, commending him for his obedience to God and showing him a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The York version of Abraham and Isaac diverges from other iterations of the story by having a grown-up Isaac, who is ‘thirty year and more sumdele’ – around thirty years old, the same age that Christ was believed to have been when he was crucified. The York Abraham and Isaac therefore brings the play closer to the story of the Passion, anticipating the climax of the cycle of performances. Rather than a helpless child, Abraham is asked to kill a son whom he has raised and with whom he has grown old, a strong young man who could overpower his father if he chose to fight back. This also emphasises Isaac’s own acceptance of his fate and his obedience to both God and his father.
About the Performance
This group chose to have the actor playing the angel double as a servant. As a result, God’s messenger appears to watch over – or perhaps spy on – Abraham and Isaac as they go to the mountain to perform the sacrifice. The group got particularly creative with their costumes, drawing on traditional shepherds’ clothing from a variety of times and places and showing the angel as both a messenger and a symbol. A special highlight was the sheep, which was crocheted by a member of the group and caused a round of applause upon its dramatic revelation by the angel.
Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria (The First Joy of Mary), in Middle Dutch, based on the text preserved in Brussels, KBR, MS.IV 192. From 1348 onwards, the city of Brussels held an annual procession on the Sunday before Pentecost to honour a statue of the Virgin Mary. A century after its inception, an extra element was added to the festivities: on the Grote Markt, a seven-year cycle of Bliscap, or ‘Joy’ plays was peformed. Each year until 1566, one of the seven Joys of Mary was staged and celebrated. Of the original seven plays, only two have survived, each preserved in a manuscript in the Royal Library of Belgium.
Summary
God tells the angel Gabriel that he wants to become human and sends him to travel to Nazareth, where he will find Mary. Gabriel is astonished, but complies. He greets Mary, who is reading, and announces that she, albeit a virgin, will conceive a child who shall be called Jesus and be the Saviour of mankind. Mary, too, is astonished by the concept of the immaculate conception, but Gabriel explains that her cousin, Elizabeth, although old and barren, will also conceive a child.
About the Performance
This was the first time a Dutch play was performed in the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays, and a wonderful addition to the cycle. A particular highlight was the merry angel Gabriel, whose travels from God to Nazareth were accompanied by a jingling bell.
Location: Churchyard; in front of the library entrance
Performers: Les perles innocentes
Cast
Joseph/Satan – Elisa Pagliaro
Marie/God – Aurélie Blanc
Host 1/Angel 1 – Anaïs Collonge
Host 2/Angel 2 – Antigoni Tasiou
Host 3/Angel 3 – Christina Morgan
Sophron, a Shepherd – Helene Wigginton
Elpison, a Shepherd – Carmen Vigneswaren-Smith
Philetine, a Shepherdess – Marta Folegnani
Cristilla, a Shepherdess – Inès Trouplin
Crew
Director – Elisabeth Dutton
Assistant Director – Aurélie Blanc
Musical Director – Antigoni Tasiou
Design, Props, and Costumes – Maria Papantuono
Producer – Helene Wigginton
With special thanks to Sandy Maillard (Université de Fribourg, Suisse)
Text
Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), Comédie de la Nativité de Jésus Christ, abridged and performed in the original (early 16th century) French.
Marguerite, wife of King Henry II of Navarre, sister to Francis I, king of France, and ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, was a patron of humanists and reformers, and herself an important writer: she composed poems, a collection of short stories called the Heptameron, and the intense mystical poem Miroir de l’âme pécheresse. She also wrote a number of plays, including dramatisations of scriptural episodes.
Summary
Joseph, travelling on orders of the Emperor, is seeking accommodation for his heavily pregnant wife Mary. Three ‘Hosts’ turn them away, but they find a stable where Mary can give birth. God sends his angels to celebrate the moment of Christ’s coming to earth: the angels praise Mary and her newborn baby, and Joseph kneels and kisses him. The angels announce the arrival of the Saviour to two shepherds and two shepherdesses, who sing on their way to the stable and offer gifts to the baby of milk, a flute, and firewood. Satan appears and laments the loss of the power he has held over mankind since Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden. The shepherds and shepherdesses tell him that they have met the Saviour; Satan argues that such an important person would not be found in a stable, but their faith remains unshaken. Satan, realising he cannot escape God’s power, calls on evil spirits to advise him ‘how to make shadows eclipse the sun’. God proclaims that the willing sacrifice of his son will overcome Satan, and the angels sing in praise of God.
Like the Comédie des Innocents, which les perles innocentes staged at the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2023, the Comédie de la Nativité is both richly theological, presenting the contrast between divine authority and evil tyranny, and deeply concerned with social justice. Marguerite shows humble people challenging corrupt and bullying powers: ordinary women defied the callous soldiers who murdered their children at a tyrant’s command; humble shepherds outface Satan himself, empowered by their newfound faith in a baby who, to their own initial wonderment, has chosen not a great hall but a humble stable as his first home. Once again, Marguerite gives particular emphasis to female characters, portraying female as well as male shepherds, and emphasising the faith, strength, and wisdom of the Virgin Mary.
About the Performance
Just like their previous performances at the Medieval Mystery Plays, this performance of Les perles innocentes, who travelled from Fribourg just for the Cycle, was once again wonderfully rich and detailed. Performed in perfect, but easily understandable, 16th-century French, their staging included such details as the three Hosts looking like proper concierges, and the angels sang beautifully in between the spoken passages. They also built on the Marguerite de Navarre’s emphasis on strong women by having an all-female cast.
Script Writer and Adapter – Phillip Quinn, with help from Elliott Clark
Text
The Wedding at Cana was included in the York Medieval Mystery Cycle, but the original text has unfortunately mostly been lost. The script used for this performance was an original composition in Modern English (with some Middle English archaisms), written by Phillip Quinn with help from Elliott Clark and based on the one and a half known lines of the York version.
Summary
When the wine runs out at a wedding in the little Galilean town of Cana, Mary asks Jesus to step in. After some hesitation, his ultimate response is to perform the first miracle of his earthly ministry: transforming several large jars of water into fine wine. In doing so, he heralds the coming of the Kingdom of God and foreshadows the consummation of history in the heavenly banquet at which he himself will be the bridegroom.
About the Performance
Despite its foreshadowing of the Crucifixion at the end and the seriousness of Christ’s miraculous power, the Wedding at Cana is an entertaining story, and this performance brought the hilarious elements out in full. Featuring perplexed servants, drunken wedding guests, the happy couple, and a proud-mother-moment for Mary, it elicited many laughs from the audience.
Performers: The Wicked Weights (Lincoln College Players)
Cast
Soldiers – Jess Hind, Molly Milton, Kyra Radley, Alys Young
Christ – Petru Badea
Crew
Directors – Paul Cooley, Molly Milton
Stage and Script Adapter – Paul Cooley, Molly Milton
Costume Designer – Maureen Abrokwa
Props Designer – Tallula Haynes
Music and Marketing – Anja Woosnam
Administration and Assistance – Rebecca Menmuir, Alison Ray
With special thanks to:
Mike Hawkins (Lincoln College Head Gardener) for creating a crown of thorns
Jonny Torrance (Lincoln College Chaplain) for building a cross
Lincoln College JCR for providing funding
Text
The York version of the Crucifixion (Middle English). The group used a manuscript version which was updated to sound more familiar to the modern English-speaking ear but kept as much of the original language and rhyme-scheme as possible to remain close to the original version of the play. Jesus’ speeches were entirely translated into modern English from the original Middle English, adding a sense of gravity that is wholly unique to this particular edition of the play.
Summary
The play depicts the well-known story of Christ’s crucifixion, but with a twist: despite the undeniable seriousness of the situation, the focus is not on Christ and his suffering, but on the four somewhat inept soldiers who are responsible for nailing him to the cross and erecting it. Throughout the play, they bicker with each other over trivial matters whilst Christ endures his cruficixion with solemnity and without objection. The comedic dynamic between the soldiers contrasts heavily with Jesus’ wholly serious speeches and thus creates a tense atmosphere which toes the line between dark comedy and an exploration of the mundane cruelty of the process of the crucifixion. This invites the audience to consider their own inaction during Christ’s passion.
About the Performance
The Wicked Weights were named after a particularly iconic line in the York Crucifixion. They are a group of Lincoln College undergraduates studying English and were supported by various members of college. A particular highlight of this performance was the towering cross, purpose-built for this day by Jonny Torrance, the chaplain at Lincoln College. Other comedic elements were added to the already surprisingly funny play through prop and costume choices – for instance, the soldiers all had giant inflatable hammers, and were reading their Scripts from ‘Cross Flatpack Instructions’.
With special thanks to Fr Andreas Wenzel, the chaplain of St Edmund Hall, for permission to use the vestments.
Text
The Bordesholmer Marienklage, in Low German and Latin. The Bordesholmer Marienklage is a remarkable dramatic dialogue from the late 15th century, written for performance at the Augustinian monastery of Bordesholm in Northern Germany by Provost Johannes Reborch. It consists of sung and chanted text for a cast of five: Christ, John, and the three Marys.
The sung dialogue is taken from the liturgy, including verses from the Stabat Mater, to which are added Middle Low German adaptations of the same, sung to similar melodies. The bulk of the action takes place in chanted Middle Low German rhyming verse. A particular feature, unique amongst German Marian Laments, is the survival of detailed instructions which specify that the work should be performed either on Good Friday or on the preceding Monday, and that it should be ‘neither a play nor amusement, but lamenting and wailing and devout compassion for the glorious Virgin Mary’. It was therefore intended to form a part in the monastery’s liturgical life during Holy week; moreover, these instructions and the ‘personae’ throughout continually insist on the necessity of the audience’s participation, through compassion, in Mary’s suffering. It should be performed either in front of the church choir, or – if the weather is fair – outdoors. The ‘personae’ should wear liturgical vestments and Jesus and John ‘dyademata de papiro’ – paper crowns, and that of Jesus was to be decorated with crosses.
Summary
After Christ’s crucifixion, the three Marys – the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and Mary, mother of John – as well as St John the Evangelist, lament Christ’s death at the cross. At the end, Christ is taken from the cross and laid on the ground.
About the Performance
Complying with Johannes Reborch’s detailed instructions, the five figures in this performance all wore liturgical vestments from the St Edmund Hall chapel, as well as paper crowns (courtesy of Christmas crackers). Singing their lament in front of the cross from the preceding Crucifixion play, this was a wonderful contrast to the entertaining Crucifixion, emphasising the women’s grief after Jesus’ death.
Latin Sequences. Sequences, complex liturgical songs with a strong poetic and narrative function, are among the most recent, and therefore truly medieval, sung elements of the Christian liturgy, staging particularly in the Easter Night the fundamental miracle of salvation history, Christ overcoming death.
The version used for these sequences was taken from the Handbook of the Provost of the Cistercian convent of Medingen, like Bordesholm located in Northern Germany. It is kept in the Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. liturgy. e. 18.
Summary
Christ descends into Hell, where he brings salvation to the captive souls there, before overcoming death and rising again.
About the Performance
The Choir of St Edmund Hall picked up seamlessly from the previous Lamentation. Accompanying Christ into hell (the crypt underneath the Teddy Hall Library), they sang the Cum rex gloriae, which tells of the host of angels breaking into hell. There, they were greeted with an Advenisti (you have arrived!) by Adam, Eve, and all the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament. Following this sequence, there was a short tea break, marking the significant turning point in the narrative that is Christ’s overcoming of death. After the tea break, the choir opened the third part of the Cycle with the Victimae paschali laudes, in which Mary Magdalen reports her experience of the empty tomb to the apostles.
The York verison of the Resurrection (Middle English). The play fits in well with the liturgical traditions of Easter Sunday. Particularly the Angel’s song and the meeting between the Angel and the three Marys, the so-called Visitatio Sepulchri, is a common theme. It appears that this section of the play reproduces a piece of liturgical drama in use at the time. On the other hand, the representation of Pilate and the High Priests is unusual, drawing on speculations in the apocryphal writings, texts which seek to fill in the imaginative gaps left in the Biblical narrative: what did they really think, and what did they do next?
Summary
The York version of the Resurrection of Christ focuses not on Jesus himself but on three sets of characters who represent three sets of responses to the mystery of Easter Sunday. The play begins and ends with Pilate and the High Priests. To begin with, they are pleased with how the crucifixion went, but the Centurion arrives and tells them of strange occurrences which suggest all is not as it seems. To make sure Jesus stays dead, they set a guard of soldiers to watch the tomb. At the tomb, the soldiers are contrasted with the Marys, who bring oils to anoint the body and are confronted with the empty tomb. An angel arrives and tells them that Jesus is risen and now in Galilee, to which they respond with faith, hope, and love. Meanwhile, Pilate and the High Priests Caiaphas and Annas conspire to cover up the embarrassing and disturbing fact of the empty tomb with a story that the soldiers were overpowered by Jesus’ disciples, who stole the body away. The ironic framing invites the audience to question whose account they believe: is it all ‘fake news’, or is he risen indeed?
The dramatist’s range covers pious devotion, political conspiracy, and the everyday reactions of the soldiers who represent the everyman. Faced with the life-changing reality of the empty tomb, they display the full range of responses from pretending nothing has happened to embracing the truth come what may. The piece is character-driven, often emotive, and finally supremely ironic, drawing the audience in.
About the Performance
The York Resurrection, like the Crucifixion, brings out the human element surrounding the biblical narrative, reflecting the worries of the soldiers at the tomb and the High Priests. The players from St Stephen’s House chose to lean on the already existing comedic elements, turning this into a genuinely hilarious production – complete with gorgeously dressed and very camp High Priests who hand-fed Pilate grapes, and a comforting angel delivering tissues to the weeping Virgin Mary.
Soldiers – Hillary Chua, Ivana Kuric, Alex Marshall
Angels – Elizabeth Crabtree, Marisia Czepiel
Crew
Director – David Wiles
Stage Manager – Elizabeth Crabtree
Musician – Jessica Qiao
Text
The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins, by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, performed in a mix of Latin and a new translation. Hrosvitha was an aristocratic tenth-century canoness, and her six plays are a bridge between the classical and medieval worlds. She had a ribald sense of humour and a strong feminist agenda – even this play, despite its serious plot, is a comedy with many hilarious elements. Latin was a language that Hrosvitha used in daily life, and this group sought to discover her unique style, midway between poetry and prose.
Summary
The Roman Emperor Diocletian insists that the three virgin sisters Agape, Chionia, and Irena renounce their Christian faith and marry members of his court. When they refuse, he orders them imprisoned. Governor Dulcitius, seeing their beauty, tells his soldiers to lock the sisters in the kitchen so that he can visit them. That night, Dulcitius embraces the pots and pans in the dark kitchen, thinking they are the women. He leaves covered in soot, and the soldiers think he is possessed. Not realising this, Dulcitius goes to the palace, where he is beaten and ridiculed. In retaliation for his embarrassment, he commands that Agape, Chionia, and Irena be stripped in public, but the soldiers are unable to remove the robes from the women’s bodies. Eventually, Emperor Diocletian orders Count Sisinnius to punish the sisters. Sisinnius orders Agape and Chionia burned alive – their spirits leave their bodies, but their bodies and clothes miraculously are not burned. Despite her sisters’ death, Irena continues to refuse to renounce her faith. She manages to escape the soldiers and stands on top of a mountain. The soldiers are unable to reach her there, so Sisinnius orders one of the soldiers to shoot her with an arrow. She dies, but her spirit is lifted to heaven.
About the Performance
This performance was unique among the mystery plays in several respects. It was the only play performed partly in Latin, and superbly so – the interspersing of Latin with English parts made it easy to follow the story, and the Latin elements gave an indication of how Hrosvitha of Gandersheim had written the play. The players consisted of both students and members of the Iffley community, making this a production spanning a large range of ages and backgrounds. The performance also included music played on a violin, which gave it a wonderfully emotional note. The group chose to perform the play in modern dress, in order to suggest that the impulses driving early martyrs have not vanished in the modern world. For the research behind this production, see David Wiles ‘Hrosvitha of Gandersheim: The Performance of her Plays in the Tenth Century’, Theatre History Studies 19 (1999), pp. 133-150. The group’s name, Clamor Validus, means ‘Forceful Shout’, Hrosvitha’s Latinisation of her Saxon name.
A modern English adaptation of the Middle English The Last Judgement, drawing from the Chester, N-Town, and Towneley cycles.
Summary
It’s the end of the world. God and the angels recall the Creation and the history of humankind. Then the final reckoning comes: the angels call up the dead souls from their graves. One by one, they praise God (the good souls) or lament their own wicked deeds (the bad souls). Jesus, as king of heaven, judges them. He praises the good souls, who ascend singing into heaven, and scolds the bad ones, who are dragged to hell by Lucifer and the demons.
About the Performance
Performed in modern English and with plenty of ingenious staging choices – highlights included the guitar-playing archangel Gabriel, the dead souls popping up from the ditch next to the church, the gummy worms sewn to their clothes, and a hungover Lucifer being roused by his demons to get ready for Judgment Day –, this performance was a wonderful end to the day. After the Jesus-related plays, TheLast Judgement picked up some of the characters who had appeared in the Old Testament plays earlier that morning, including God, Lucifer, and the archangels, which demonstrated the cyclical nature of world history as presented in the Bible.
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: OldTestamentPlays (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.
The Wicked Weights admire their purpose-built cross – all ready for the Crucifixion! Picture: Rebecca Menmuir
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? 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!
A performance of a medieval mystery play cycle, with a reconstruction of the no longer extant wedding at Cana episode. Directed by Philipp Quinn and Elliott Clark.
When: Saturday, 25 January 2025, 2pm Where: Pusey House, Oxford
Philipp writes: We at Pusey House welcome all and sundry to join us as we continue our Epiphanytide celebrations with carefully selected mystery plays. The event is not ticketed. The runtime should be roughly an hour. We very much look forward to seeing you there!
Pusey House put on mystery plays for the first time in 2023. In that first performance, we sought to portray the Bible’s broad “narrative,” with the Creation, the Fall, the Passion, and the Final Judgement as our highlights. This time, in connection with the Epiphany Season, we’ve chosen to emphasize the Magi, Jesus’ baptism, and the Wedding at Cana. In prioritizing that theme, we’ve had to be more eclectic in our sources this year. Whereas our first performance was based largely on the York cycle, our current plays are drawn from both the Chester and York cycles. Our plays also an original, the Wedding at Cana, since the Wedding is not found in the Chester cycle and has not survived (apart from a line-and-a-half fragment) in the York cycle.
We are advertising for a Head of Performance and announcing a speed dating / workshop meeting!
1. Medieval Mystery Plays Meeting of the Minds Workshop
Friday 29 November 2024 (Week 7), 5–6.30pm, at St Edmund Hall, Doctorow Hall
Join this speed dating workshop for matching up actors, directors, musicians, texts, and props for the upcoming Medieval Mystery Cycle on 26 April 2025! Whether you are interested but still unsure how to put together a play, which play to choose, or how to act, all are welcome! The focus of the workshop will be on how to produce a medieval play script in an accessible version (of up to 20 minutes), but there will also be an opportunity to match actors and directors and to discuss any other practical questions you might have on site at St Edmund Hall – and to enjoy tea and cake!
Meanwhile, we’re still looking for groups to join the Medieval Mystery Cycle: have a look at the original blog post!
Let us know if you’re interested in joining by emailing Henrike Lähnemann and Lesley Smith, the Co-Directors. Also contact us if you are a graduate student or postdoc interested in this opportunity:
2. Head of Performance sought for Medieval Mystery Plays
Are you interested in pulling the strings for a successful run of the 2025 performance of the Medieval Mystery Plays? We are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and, above all, well-organised graduate student or postdoc to
liaise with the directors, volunteers, and groups taking part
plan the logistics of the performance
run the operations on the actual performance date
coordinate the publicity
write and / or edit the programme
facilitate the documentation
head the stewarding team
There will be a reward of £300 plus the opportunity of networking closely across the medievalist and performance people of Oxford and beyond. Please apply by Monday, 25 November 2025, with a short statement of interest and your CV by emailing Henrike Lähnemann and Lesley Smith, the Co-Directors.
Call for Actors, Directors, Costume Makers, and Musicians!
Would you like to take part in a medieval dramatic experiment? Directors, actors, costume makers and musicians wanted!
The next cycle is going to take place on 26 April 2025 at St Edmund Hall
These plays were a very popular form of drama in the Middle Ages – with different groups performing short plays telling stories from the Bible. To take part in the next performance, contact Antonia Anstatt and Sarah Ware, Co-Heads of Performance, or email Professor Henrike Lähnemann, Fellow at St Edmund Hall Fellow and Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics, and Professor Lesley Smith, Fellow and Tutor in Politics and Senior Tutor at Harris Manchester College, Co-Directors of the Oxford Medieval Studies Programme at TORCH, under the address medieval@torch.ox.ac.uk.
Report by Elisabeth Dutton, Université de Fribourg, on the staging of the Comédie des Innocents, by Marguerite de Navarre. Presented by les perles innocentes as part of the Medieval Mystery Cycle 2023 at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford (see there for a synopsis of the play and the cast list).
The play at first reading seemed to me a fairly conventional dramatization of the story, not so different from the story as told in the English mystery plays, for example– the idea that Herod kills his own son is found in the Golden Legend and thus well established in European tradition. But Marguerite gives particular force to female characters, not just the feisty mothers and Nurse who care for the slaughtered babies, but also most importantly Rachel, whose lengthy lament, a rhetorical tour de force, is really the climax of Marguerite’s script. In a play which shows mothers and Herod violently deprived of their children, and which foreshadows God’s loss of his own Son, the Old Testament matriarch Rachel powerfully gives voice to the grief of women, King, and ultimately God. She also raises a protest against tyranny and abuse that feels all too contemporary.
I knew that I needed an actress for Rachel who could be at once strong and feminine, and utterly absorbing to the audience, and I was delighted that Elisa Pagliaro agreed to play the role. I wanted the speech to be supported by some haunting music, and am grateful that Lucy Matheson found a medieval French setting of the Vox in Rama, and agreed to sing it for us for the performance in Oxford. The effect of Marguerite’s verse, delivered by Elisa directly to the audience, with Lucy’s haunting song underneath, was very powerful indeed, and quite unlike anything I had experienced in other dramatisations of the Innocents. Its power took us all a little by surprise. There was a completely different reading and understanding of the Comédie des Innocents – in particular of Rachel’s lament – from the very first time I independently read it, and the way I felt and understood it on the day of the performance in Oxford.
Elisa Pagliaro on performing Rachel’s lament
The original play is 1075 lines long: in order to fit into our allotted 20 minutes, Aurélie Blanc cut more than half of its lines, while expertly maintaining a sense of the versification. Aurélie was also essential to my vision of the play from the start, as I needed her exceptional talents for the roles both of Herod and of God. As a travelling troupe, we had to keep our costs down through maximal doubling – and the structure of the various scenes required that God be doubled with the royal tyrant, as well as one of the mothers. This doubling was in fact rather pointed, as Aurélie writes:
The main challenge when participating in this play was to take on three roles: I played God, then Herod, and then one of the women whose child is killed by the soldiers. During the play, I did not have much time to go from one character to another. I struggled with those transitional moments because God, Herod, and Woman 1 seemed so different from each other. I tried to find what their main characteristics were so I could focus on these while changing roles. God and Herod are both rulers, both authoritative and confident (at least at times in the case of Herod). However, Herod is more frantic, chaotic, and changeable than God. Surprisingly perhaps, I found the character of God harder to play. It was much easier to relate to Herod with his mood swings and emotional outbursts! As for the Woman, she seemed completely unlike the other two characters. Her tender love for her child is her main concern throughout her scenes. Thinking about these characters helped me understand them, but I felt that things truly came together when I realized that all three were parents and all three lost their child. God’s worry for his son is what prompts him to send an angel to Joseph and Mary, it is the reason motivating his first speech. Understanding this helped me relate to God: when playing him, I did not have to try to pretend to be all powerful and all knowing, I had to focus instead on thinking about saving a person that I loved. Herod’s motivations are more selfish, but he also acts with his son in mind: he wants his son rather than Jesus to rule over his kingdom after him. Once I saw this, I found it much easier to play his shock and grief when his dead son is presented to him. And Woman 1, of course, was always a character focused on her child. Understanding these connections between my three characters was really helpful to me. These people no longer seemed entirely different from each other but were united by the same love and the same grief. This love and grief could stay with me throughout the play as I moved between God, Herod, and Woman 1.
Aurélie Blanc on playing God, Herod and a grieving mother
Aurélie’s performance of all three roles was extraordinary. And the requirements of the doubling also lay behind the blocking of the piece, which came to me very early on in rehearsals. I wanted to find a way to use the whole of Teddy Hall’s front quad: early drama, I believe, always exploited its venues to the full, and it’s good to make actors do hard physical work. Then, the actors would have no ‘offstage’ space for changing, and in any case they wouldn’t have time to do anything other than change ‘onstage’; but the audience needed to recognize clearly their changes of role, so we associated role with place (an idea most clearly demonstrated in medieval drama by the extant stage plan of the Castle of Perseverance, with its ‘skaffolds’ for the God, the World, the Flesh and the Devil.)
I enjoyed the sense of empowerment that came from filling the front quad with our voices and bodies.
Helene Wigginton on performing in a medieval venue
God begins the play in a scene of heavenly harmony, commanding his angels. We established him standing on the well in the centre of the quad (scriptural associations of wells are a pleasing coincidence). In each of the four corners of the quad we placed a black storage stool, containing costume changes, and Mary and Joseph began sitting on the stools to God’s right, while Herod was to occupy the stool on God’s left. The effect was formal and stylized, which matches the verse. The angels could move freely between ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’, delivering messages and also distributing chocolates to the audience (we are a Swiss troupe, after all); when the angel actors had to become soldier-tyrants, they went to the other ‘left’ stool to swap their wings for helmets.
As the scene shifted from heaven to Herod’s court, Aurélie left her golden cape on the well and donned regal robes on Herod’s ‘throne’: since Herod then issues quick-fire commands to doctors and soldiers, frantic activity ensued as all the other actors rushed backwards and forwards across the playing area to obey his orders. The pace contrasted with the calm order of heaven, and the audience had a disconcerting sense that the focus was pulled ‘off-centre’ with Herod’s power. Tyranny pulls all things out of joint.
The babies (dolls with soft torsos) were slaughtered using a sword and two spears, mainly because I am haunted by the image of ‘naked infants spitted upon pikes’. We used this device once before, in a staging of the Middle English Digby Killing of the Children, and it provoked horrified laughter in the audience. I was fascinated that the effect in Marguerite’s play was completely different: there was no laughter, but there was genuine horror. I think this is partly because, whereas the Digby play includes a Fool character among Soldiers, who all seem rather dim, Marguerite writes her killers concisely and explicitly as Tyrants.
Carmen Vigneswaren-Smith on her role as soldier: ‘the audience flinched back from my spear, gasped and covered their mouths in surprise at the murder of the babies, and I was suddenly reminded of what the familiarity of rehearsal can make you forget — that it was in fact a brutal massacre that we were acting out.’ One woman in the audience clutched her own baby to her. Audience members commented that their stomachs were knotted.
The sense of horror was not entirely dispelled by the final song, which was a Christmas song, since the play would originally have been performed on the feast of the Innocents, December 28th. The script states that it should be sung to “Si j’ayme mon amy”: for our performance, Sandy Maillard, founder of the all-female choir Fa Mi Cantar, adapted a tune of that name found in the songbook of Françoise de Foix, Countess of Châteaubriant, 1495-1537, celebrated beauty and lover of King Francis I (the songbook is now British Library MS Harley 5242.) It is a strangely unnerving ending to a powerfully disconcerting play.
The sixteenth-century French seemed to present no obstacle to the audience’s engagement, and we are grateful to have had such an opportunity to explore its quality. Our production was probably different in many ways from any performance Marguerite might have seen or even envisaged, but we hope that our all-female production, delivered with precise attention to the words she wrote, may have captured something of their spirit, which seems that of an almost feminist protest against tyranny.
Monday 6 March 2023 (Week 8), 4.30–6pm, at St Edmund Hall, Pontigny Room
In this workshop, we will be offering voice projection exercises and practical advice for the Medieval Mystery Cycle. All actors and directors interested in taking part are invited to attend! Beyond general exercises, there will also be an opportunity to work out staging constellations on site at St Edmund Hall (as well as an opportunity to enjoy tea and cake).
The workshop will be led by Dr Jim Harris, the Medieval Mystery Cycle’s Master of Ceremonies and Teaching Curator at the Ashmolean Museum. Let us know if you’re able to join us by emailing Michael Angerer, the graduate convenor.
Friday 3 February 2023 (Week 3), 5–6.30pm, at St Edmund Hall, Old Dining Hall
Join this workshop for tips and guidance on how to adapt medieval mystery plays for modern performance, a workshop for directors and actors alike. Whether you have already signed up to this year’s Medieval Mystery Cycle on 22 April 2023 or are interested but still unsure how to put together a play or how to act, all are welcome! The focus of the workshop will be on how to cut a medieval play script down to an accessible version (of up to 20 minutes), but there will also be an opportunity to match actors and directors and to discuss any other practical questions you might have on site at St Edmund Hall – and to enjoy tea and cake!
The workshop will be led by David Wiles, Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter and a veteran director of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle. Let us know if you’re interested in joining by emailing Michael Angerer, the graduate convenor.
Meanwhile, we’re still looking for groups to join the Medieval Mystery Cycle: have a look at the original blog post with the sign-up link!