Come Christmas, or more to the point come Boxing day, much silliness starts to happen to members of Harberton Navy. People take their post Christmas day hangovers, along with their over turkeyed, far to much chocolated bodies and start a frantic last minute hunt for fancy dress, having, sometime before Christmas, rashly agreed to take part in the annual mummer's play. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Truth is, it is a good idea - its always a laugh, but first the hasty raiding of each other's houses, collection of brooms and scarves, scripts being scellotaped to empty gin bottles and the inside of cardboard helmets, the borrowing of childrens toy medical bags all starts approximately 15 mintues after the time we agreed to meet in the pub; the Church house Inn in Harberton.

Once gathered en masse in the local, we can relax into our drinks and laugh at each others garb, before squeezing into the porch to begin.

Cat Radford did a cut and paste job (her words) on a load of South West Mummers Plays to come up with this original one in 2002. (Got to be different from everyone else haven't we). The Cholwell Mummers Play can be downloaded here.

  

Thus follows high quality of acting, AKA reading script from said gin bottle, and protracted fight between St George and the Turkeysnipe, to the amusement of non locals, (we did not know this was going to happen!) and to the bemusement of the locals (only too aware).

   

 

After this we start the ancient (well a few years old anyway) tradition of bottle blowing our way through Christmas carols, with the aid of empty beer bottles carefully topped up with water to the right note, each numbered, and our battered number charts.

Inevitably, at some point someone will miss-blow and a note will be more of a splutter-giggle, or a silence mid tune followed by cries of 'who has number 8?!? oh its me sorry!' all adding to the errr....polished performance it always is.

Then a little playing of folky music or Christmassy music. or sometimes folky Christmassy music,before finally retreating all together to one house, for more food and more drink. 

 

 

 

Morris dancing? doesn't seem to enter into it.

last updated 11.05.05