The Miracle of the Midwife's hand - from the Chester Nativity
Performed at St Saviour
5th June 2022
ON SUNDAY, 5 June, at 5 p.m., the Players contributed to the celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at St Saviour by replaying an extract from the Chester Nativity, as last performed by us in 2018, rebranded under the title ‘The Miracle of the Midwife’s Hand’ and furnished with a Prologue cunningly adapted by our director, Gill Taylor, from the Herald’s speech in the original. ‘My Lord Octavian’ became ‘My Lady Elizabeth’, who summoned the hearers not to pay a poll tax (there was no admission charge), but to celebrate a Jubilee, for which we were about to offer ‘according to custom’, a Mystery play this Whitsuntide − neatly anticipating any question about the appropriateness of performing a Nativity play at Pentecost: not only is performing Nativity play what the Players do (our custom), but in medieval Chester Whitsuntide was one customary occasion for the performance of the Mystery Play cycle as a whole, Creation to Last Judgement, Nativity included. We mustered a small troupe of Players, and drew in a small and mainly local audience.
Roger Haworth, Jackie Withnall and Janet Cowen made return appearances in the roles of Joseph, Tebell and Salome respectively, with the unfair advantage of already knowing the lines. Tanya Winsor, who had appeared as Mary in the York Nativity last December, gave another graceful and authoritative performance in the role, mastering a new script at short notice. The Herald, played by Mike Shallcross, announced the play with great panache, striding down the aisle with a handbell and scooping up any members of the audience still lingering by the tea tables. Having delivered the Prologue he withdrew to the side pews and, rapidly donning one of our newly acquired masks, metamorphosed into the Ox, a walk-on part embodied by another ingenious stroke of our director out of Joseph’s line in the script: ‘An ox will I take with me . . .’. Harnessed and led to Bethlehem, the Ox was duly installed in the stable, where, as is way with animals, he became a contestant for the title of starring role.
Gill played the Angel, speaking from the pulpit, and provided all the incidental music in the form of singing, bells and tambourine: a traditional folk song to cover the journey to Bethlehem, Britten’s ‘A Boy was Born’ for the moment of Christ’s birth, and a rousing rendering of ‘Gaudete’ to conclude.
Inexhaustible supplies of tea, cake and wine, served at the back of the church by doughty members of the congregation, launched the celebrations and kept them afloat, flowing apparently effortlessly from the play to the very enjoyable and interesting clavichord concert which followed at 6 p.m.
The afternoon was enjoyed by audience and participants alike, and we trust Her Majesty would have been pleased had she been there (though it is reported that she finds it rather fun when things go wrong, and on this occasion nothing did).
A Partial Spectator
The following article featured in the Players of St Peter newsletter from August 2022