The Lords of Misrule

So, when I'm not reading hundreds of pages every week on skaldic poetry and similarly obscure topics, I'm usually devoting myself to the major extracurricular activity at the CMS (apart from going to the pub). Named after the ancient tradition of appointing an officer for wild holiday revelry, the Lords of Misrule is our period drama company, founded in the 1960s by a group of postgraduates who thought it would be great fun to put on medieval plays in their original Middle English. Somehow this idea proved to work in performance, and now, some 40 years on, the troupe have expanded their range to include productions in Old English (an adaptation of Beowulf some years ago) and Old Norse (two or three of them, including an adaptation of part of the Poetic Edda last year). The OE and ON plays, of course, did include major sections in modern English and other devices to help people keep track of what was taking place, but the original-language aspect has always been key with the Lords; it is the major characteristic which distinguishes us from other groups putting on medieval theatre, and we are quite proud of our ability to make this sort of thing accessible to general audiences.

The thing about the Lords is, we're not actors. We're not even close to being real actors. Most of the current cast are MA students, with two PhD students directing this term's production, and the rest are either PhDs or former postgrads who happen to still be in the area. Everyone who wants a part gets a part, just like in elementary school. We only have time to rehearse once a week, so the production tends to get thrown together at the last minute; and we receive no funding from anybody -- we can only afford to put on the first terms' plays because the summer show is now usually Shakespeare, and we can get a good turnout for that. Otherwise we can (we hope) count on making enough money in ticket sales to pay for the venue, and that's it.

As they did last year, this term we're putting on a double-bill (with a theme of "Clerks Gone Wild") of adaptations from the Canterbury Tales: the Franklin's Tale and the Miller's Tale. Yes, the language is Middle English, and our pronunciation is still pretty uneven but doing a lot better than it was when we started. I play one of the leads in the Franklin's Tale: Aurelius, a lovesick squire who makes a deal with a magician to make some rocks disappear so he can get his lady, but has a change of heart in the end (obviously that's not a full synopsis -- I do recommend that people read it). The Miller's Tale, meanwhile, is 25 minutes of bawdy mayhem that can't fail to please audiences, since with so much slapstick it's not even really necessary to understand the dialogue.

Venues for the productions differ. Last year they put on the Norse double-bill in a replica Viking longhouse at Merton Park, which was very difficult logistically because the house could only fit about 35 audience members if you stacked them up virtually on the stage, and the only way to get the audience there was to hire a coach to take them, which cost the Lords a small fortune. The Shakespeare shows take place in a variety of locations, but usually they're done outside, in places like the Museum Gardens or the Minster Yard, which means that they can (and do) get rained on, although Yorkshirefolk are not easily scared off by rain. This term we're returning to an old standby, All Saints' Church on North Street.

We're doing four shows -- three evening performances on the 9-11 December, plus a matinee on the 9th which will apparently be attended by 50 to 60 first-year undergraduates from Hull, who are being dragged to see us for reasons nobody has explained to us yet. This is not especially great timing, since our course essays are due on the 15th and we will be in a fairly frantic state about it, but it can't be helped.

I'm not sure whether anyone will be videotaping the performances, but surely there will be photographs from our dress rehearsals, which I'll add to Mieraus.com once I have them in my possession.