Magical Mystery Plays

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Magical Mystery Plays

The Ringwood Mystery plays were a magical success as six playlets were performed in the Furlong Centre throughout a long, hot day, and then a final hour long performance in the Parish Church in the evening.

Over a hundred people were involved in this ambitious enterprise which started a year ago as an idea of Canon John Turpin following a conversation with Sally Whyte of the Poulner Players, as part of the Churches Together Festival of Faith. The idea was developed by him, with the help of Margaret Doores the wife of the Vicar of St Leonards and St Ives, Anne Osbourne the Ringwood Church warden and Elaine Drew a member of Ringwood Methodist Church.

The playlets were recreated from the medieval mystery plays, which were designed to teach the Bible stories to a largely illiterate public. They were made more appealing by the interweaving of stories about local events and characters. The Ringwood plays were written by young drama graduates Gareth Malone and Maria Leaf.

The sixty odd casts were recruited and rehearsed in just six weeks. Many of the actors and directors were from the Ringwood Musical and Dramatic Society, some had limited stage experience but for most it was the first time they had performed on a stage. They included the youngest 7 year old Rebecca Gray who played Ruth in the Bisterne Dragon play, to Lou Moore, a king in the story of the Magi, who was in his seventies.

Margaret Doores said "Each of the six playlets were cast and rehearsed separately with different directors and in a very short space of time. The first time we all came together to perform the whole was a rehearsal two days before the day.

"I have to confess after that first entire rehearsal I did have some doubts and wondered if this was going to work. But on the day, everything came together brilliantly, they all remembered their words, and we had a really happy time.

"I think the hardest part was recruiting cast at the later stages for specific parts. One of our final castings was the boy who played the lackey that linked the playlets. He was 18 year old Shaun Johnson who is a student who had never done anything like this before, and he was terrific.

The plays had impressive musical accompaniment from 11 year old Elizabeth Insull on the recorder and 15 year old Emma Agar on the flute.

Despite drawing large audiences in the Furlong Centre throughout the day playing from an adapted Ringwood Brewery dray, there was also a large 150 strong audience in the Church in the evening, many were people who had caught snatches of it during the day as they were out shopping.

Said Canon John Turpin "The magnificent result was the outcome of enormous community good will. It was wonderful that our vision became such a successful reality.
"I believe that the commissioning of plays like this is unique. Historically different Guilds in the town would take the plays around to the villages and hamlets and perform from the back of a cart. We were different, we had the people come to the cart or Ringwood Brewery lorry in the Furlong.
"This was a celebration of a Festival of Faith and I had complete faith in the directors of each play, that it would be all right on the day, and indeed it was.
"Everything worked very well, but it could have been disastrous when we failed to get official Millennium funding for the project. Fortunately we raised sponsorship from Ringwood Town Council, the Ringwood Gold Society, the Furlong Shopping Centre and the loan of the lorry from Ringwood Brewery. Without that financial help we couldn't have done it.
"Having had this experience of community theatre I would like to build on what we have achieved, I have an idea for something new in the future, but it still needs some thought.

Said Belinda Charlton, event organiser in the Furlong Centre "We loved having the plays in the Centre. It was a delightful event and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so much. There was a very happy atmosphere and surprisingly little evidence of first night tension or angst."

Saturday 17th June 2000

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