The symposium proceedings presented here and edited by Peter Harrop are pending separate publication under the auspices of the Chair of the Mummers Unconvention, Stephen Rowley. They are presented here with permission of Harrop & Rowley and the present page numbers anticipate the subsequent publication.
Front cover and contents list of the published proceedings.
This introductory paper provides a brief discussion of scholarship in the field to contextualize the papers offered at the symposium. The paper draws attention to the gap between the contemporary practice of mumming and the sustained emphasis of theoretical writing on pushing the meaning of mumming into the past. Two quite separate sets of views about contemporary mumming performances are introduced, on the one hand ideas of perpetuity, tradition and ritual, and on the other hand innovation, invention, and creativity.
The 'pantomimes' created by John Rich and others in the early part of the 18th century became one of the richest and most prolific theatrical forms of that whole period. They were not at this stage mere 'children's entertainment' - that was a later 19th century development - but were a multimedia entertainment aimed at an adult audience. They included dance, instrumental music and song, along with very elaborate staging effects.
It has been suggested that this extremely popular form of theatre provided one possible source for the origin of the folk plays that emerged in the 18thC. While it is not our purpose to argue here for any direct connection, it might nevertheless be useful to describe some recent attempts at reconstruction of this important but elusive theatrical genre. Beginning in 1998 and over the following decade the Chalemie theatre group created and performed a number of pantomimes based on existing material from the many London stage productions of the early 18thC.
The paper explores the background to John Rich's The Necromancer - or Harlequin Dr Faustus (1723), Perseus & Andromeda (1730), and other pantomimes of this period, together with other sources of information, such as Hogarth's illustrations of Southwark Fair (1733). These provided much of the material for Chalemie's production of Harlequin Dr Faustus and Harlequin Pygmalion that were first performed at the South Bank Centre in January 2002/3 and subsequently toured the UK. The principal mummers characters of classical hero, rescued maiden, implacable foe, quack doctor, battle, resurrection and even a dragon (along with music, songs and dancing) are all to be found in these performances.
This paper compares the English mumming tradition with legitimate drama through the various aspects involved in preparation, performance and style, including: stage, storyline, temporal and geographic location, actors, audience, rehearsal, leadership, management and administration. It concludes that the vernacular tradition was of a style distinct from professional drama, from amateur dramatics and from pantomime, being a form of drama in its own right with its own mores and with its own strengths and weaknesses. It argues that some more recent revival styles of performance do not simply ignore the older style, but by doing so can precipitate the loss of a distinctive vernacular style.
Whilst much scholarship of English mumming has focused upon the search for origins and upon the analysis of textual composition, this paper draws upon performance studies in outlining potential descriptive and critical approaches to traditional drama in its contemporary manifestation: in performance. Focusing upon the performances of the Marshfield Mummers: the Old Time Paper Boys - reconstituted under the influence of Violet Alford in the early 1930s - the proposed model considers the significance of space, time, pattern and detail; the application of rules, strategies and dynamics; the use of objects; the various integrations and separations of text and action; and the presence of different modes of performing. All within a particular architectural setting...
The ways in which guisers and mummers ask for and gain entry to the home may seem at first to be a rather slight and esoteric topic. This paper seeks to demonstrate that seasonal rites involving ritual entry in fact form part of a range of complex threshold and boundary customs linked with life cycle traditions, the bardic orders and early law. Examples for analysis are taken mainly from Celtic language cultures and include the Mari Lywd and the rèiteach, a betrothal ritual from Gaelic Scotland. A structural model is offered which it is hoped will aid in the interpretation of these often highly complex threshold and boundary rituals.
Ripley Morris Men, formed in 1924, revived in 1981.
In 1982 after we performed the Derby Tup we were contacted by Percy Cook who told us about the Guisers play he used to do as a child, before the First World War, in Hammersmith, Ripley. We performed Percy's play, complete with two songs at the end, and using wooden swords he had made for us, the following Christmas, and every Christmas since.
Percy's play is very short. Ideal to perform in a modern pub, where attention spans are also very short. We can manage 15 or more performances a night.
Performances on the three (or four) Fridays in December before Christmas, about 40 performances, at pubs/clubs around Ripley and Selston.
Venues (agreed with landlord), routes and times vary, decided by the tour leader. No advertising, we burst in, perform, collect, and disappear (after a beer). Collection for Ripley Hospital League of Friends, (hospital built by public subscription following the death of a miner). We collect £1200+ each year.
Quite a strong local Guisering tradition in the area, some older people know the words, and there are texts for 8 local plays, 5 of which we have collected. We have some interesting reminiscences from our informants.
Issues.
In September 2009 a new mummers' play was performed for the first time around the streets of Bristol; in the shadow of Clifton Suspension Bridge, at the Underfall Yard, next to the ss Great Britain, in the centre of Queen Square and at the Temple Meads Old Station. Each location had a connection with the history and achievements of a man who made Bristol famous - although he never made it his home.
Performed by Rag Morris Mummers, The Nine Lives of Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an attempt to encapsulate the spirit of this complex individual by presenting nine episodes from his life as a series of short mummers' plays. The great engineer is well-known for his magnificent failures as well as his astonishing triumphs; he often took great risks and frequently ended up in mortal danger. In order to present these episodes as a mummers play, the character of Doctor Foster, down from Gloucester, was introduced to cure his man if he was not quite dead; and represented the real-life physicians who would have treated the engineer after his accidents and through his bouts of ill-health. The play was performed once more on the 15th September 2009 - the 150th anniversary of Brunel's death.
The play, however, lives on - and was revived in 2011 for the Bristol Folk Festival, on stage at the Colston Hall, and for the UnConvention. This talk is a chance to discover more about the processes behind the creation and performances of the play.
The composite mumming play script that the Ecclesfield-based Victorian children's author Juliana Horatia Ewing published in 1884 found its way to St Kitts & Nevis in the Caribbean, where it was it was taken up enthusiastically by the black population as one of its Christmas Sports. The Mummies continue to act (and dance) to this day. Economic migrants took the Christmas Sports in turn to the Dominican Republic, in particular around the town of San Pedro de Macoris, where the performers recently gained a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Award.
This presentation will be based around two recently-made videos. Peter Millington will introduce Ewing's play, and footage of the St Kitts Mummies and the Bull Play filmed by Joan McMurray. Caspar James will continue the story by introducing footage of the related tradition from the Dominican Republic called the Wild Indians in English and Los Guloyas(the Goliaths) in Spanish.
Evidence of mummers exists in the contemporary folk culture of Barbados. Performing with a small 'Tuk' band can be found a cast of dancers in tatters costume that would recognisable to any student of mumming, including a giant, a hobby horse and a man-woman. In living memory they performed a Christmas night visiting tradition. Since WWII the Tuk tradition has been in decline but in the last 15 years has undergone a significant revival through tourist shows and an island-wide project in schools. No play script has surfaced so far. This paper explores this and related traditions, and their origins.
Mumming in Newfoundland is and was a tradition characterized by anonymity and unconventional behaviour. As mumming activities occurred both in public out-of-doors spaces and inside people's homes, 19th century mummers had the opportunity to communicate with most, if not all, members of a community through face-to-face interaction or through word-of-mouth. The event was entertainment but it could also be understood and experienced as a form of intimidation, as a venue for exercising personal rancour and community social control. Using the form of house-to-house visitation, mummers were able to communicate specific pieces of information to targeted households and individuals. Use of the disguise element of the tradition allowed persons access to the license accorded mummers by traditional practice and to render social justice according to the understanding of the community. The structure of the tradition also allowed the use of various of its elements within collective social action to influence political, economic, and social activity in early 19th century Newfoundland.
Brief biographies of all the contributors, as published.
