Happenstance Theatre: Adrift: A Medieval Wayward Folly

 My second Happenstance production and now I know that what you get from them is very much what you would expect to have gotten from a Medieval troop of actors and musicians traveling across England or France in some annual rotation.  Setting up shop and delighting the serfs in the town square or church hall, perhaps even an appoint at the local manor where some of the egalitarian humor would have no doubt been tamped down a bit.  The show is a folly in the truest sense, bits and pieces strung together with some regular stuff and music (instrumental and vocal) and even a little dance.  Death is present and there's always a place toward the end where death comes and cuts down the majority of the cast--a reminder of it's unrelenting power over their (our) world.  Other regular bits include a pair of oracles that come to answer questions from the audience with great humor and little profundity.  There's a doctor sketch with slapstick where the cures are always worse than the maladies--again to remind the working folk that having a doctor around isn't necessarily a good thing!  A Luna Moth arrives to take away everyone's cares, a metaphorical gift...but a gift nonetheless.

Among the music used was "Gaudete".  I LOVE GUADETE!  With new lyrics in both Latin and English, the song is secularized.  The line that goes "Christ is born" is replaced with "Celebrate everyone".  But my favorite adaptation came in the bridge where the line "Ashes to ashes" is rhymed with "So get off your ___" and we all burst into laughter without the need to fill in the obvious blank!  As before the costumes are beautiful, the actors are a true ensemble, the musical instruments are medieval and exciting.

The journey begins with our intrepid troop encircled by a barrel hoop and adrift at sea.

L-R: Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Gwen Grastorf and Alex Vernon

Sometimes the winds took the adventurers in directions they did not anticipate.

Frightened by the voice of God, Sarah cowers.  Then in the guise of a crow, Marc eases her fears with the succor of nature.

Of Course, the oracles have never been offered a question they cannot answer.

Gwen leads the audience is a medieval sort of "sing-a-long" accompanying herself with the harp.

The Fool finds himself stuck hopelessly to a demon!

He seeks out the help of the Doctor, who declares he has no heart!

To which he replies, "That's my foot!  My heart is up here in my chest."

"I know that," declares the Doctor.  "But you have a soul problem!"

CUE: eye roll!

Try though she might, the Doctor fails to separate them.  This is something that only the Luna Moth can accomplish.  Score one for superstition.  

Sabrina in the guise of the Luna Moth who can take the cares of the world away from the poor.