The Folger Consort and director Mary Hall Surface’s reconstruction of this pre-Shakespearean mystery play is a marvel for the Christmas holiday season. Indeed, the genesis of this play is one of its mysteries. At one time it was attributed to “the Wakefield master,” as the manuscript had been bound with a cycle of 32 plays once thought to be performed in the town of Wakefield. (And yes, the apostrophe is in the right place, for there is also a First Shepherds’ Play in the codex.)
Despite our uncertainty of who wrote it, or even what century it was written it, the play presents a simple, engaging farce of three shepherds beset by a sheep-rustler Mak (our friend Andy Brownstein) who are visited by a heavenly presence announcing good news in the darkest time of the year. The Consort and Surface have built on the bones of the one-act script (perhaps the most richly characterized of the cycle) with period music, fun puppetry to manage scene changes, and a spot of sprightly dance to make a full evening’s entertainment. To aid our understanding, pronunciation follows Modern, not Middle, English, and vocabulary has been modernized, except for a few bits spoken by Mak in a “southern tooth,” like “Ich” for “I.”
We particularly enjoyed the blue streamers and mechanical whistler that evoke the wintry blasts of wind confronting the pastoralists. And the appearance of the angel from the Folger theater’s gallery level is a gem of low-tech theatricality. The shepherds’ offerings to the Christ child—a bunch of cherries, a bird, and a ball—are quite touching.
The three shepherds are played by Bob McDonald, Aaron Cromie, and Chris Wilson, and their comic skills are matched by their vocal musicianship. Of course, the highlight of a Folger Consort production is the array of old-fashioned instruments, and this one does not disappoint: we see and hear a slide trumpet, shawms, viols, lutes, and a hurdy-gurdy. The Consort restricted its music choices to tunes from England of the 16th century or earlier. Fortunately this means the inclusion of the stirring call-and-response “Nova, Nova,” a showcase “Gabriel fram heven-kinge” for Kate Vetter Cain, a surprising multi-voiced setting of “Sumer is icumen in,” and the haunting “Coventry Carol.”
What grace we have found.
Come, now are we unbound.
Let’s make a glad sound,
And sing it not soft.
- The Second Shepherds’ Play, directed and adapted by Mary Hall Surface, the Folger Consort, Washington