Seeking out the early history of folk traditions can be rife with problems. The further back one goes, the less clear can become the timeline of the custom’s development. Just try finding the definitive history of Morris dancing, for example! The phrase “lost in the mists of time” quickly becomes appropriate, and various aspects may become commonly accepted as true, with no particular basis in historical fact. Recent assertions that blackface Border Morris dancing may have had racist rather than mysterious origins is but one example.
So it is for mummers plays. They’re not exactly morality plays. Their simple stories of good versus evil, resurrection via a quack doctor and love conquering all (to use one of the most common scenarios) date back to the Middle Ages. The first complete manuscript of a play, however, comes from the late eighteenth century. How closely it resembles earlier plays is therefore subject to conjecture. Perhaps like a folk song, the plays have changed in the telling while travelling from place to place, era to era.
Speaking of which, let’s now fast forward to the early-to-mid 1970s. Throughout this period, pioneering English folk rock band Steeleye Span featured a mummers play as part of their stage show. Contemporary tour programmes referred to the whole 1974 U.K. tour as “A New Mummers Play” which may imply it is of the group’s own devising. However, the overall format and list of characters such as The King Of Egypt’s Daughter, St George, Little Devil, Doubt, etc., played by various Steeleye members, are largely the same as in the classic stories.
When the tour reached Australia, the play was kept and fortunately, their Adelaide gig, or part thereof, was filmed for the national TV show GTK. ‘GTK’, which stood for ‘Get To Know’ and was a ten-minute, four-evenings-a-week show that aired from 1969 to 1975, featuring live recordings of bands in the TV studio or in concert. For a short while, it was the only music show on Australian TV.
The show’s film of the Steeleye Span Mummers Play was known to have existed but was feared lost, as much of the (Australian) ABC’s early programming was tragically and carelessly thrown away, wiped or literally used as road fill! No other video of the play has ever been mentioned. Luckily, the bulk of the GTK sessions were found unharmed a few years ago and have been appearing with some regularity on YouTube.
Come late May 2015, the Steeleye video finally appeared online! Filmed in black and white, it shows the band members performing, with some humour and a few lighting effects, to pre-recorded audio. No one will win any awards for acting and the plot is, as ever, rather thin, but looking for anything more would be missing the point. The play itself and the costuming certainly appear authentic and the loud applause at the end shows a modern audience still appreciates this type of performance.
Other excerpts from the Adelaide gig that were telecast in 1974 include the songs ‘Gaudete’ and ‘Two Magicians’, plus an un-named song and separate interview. Hopefully, these may also appear online in time. Interestingly, the credits on the Mummers film describe it as “a traditional folk play circa 1400” which again raises the question of how closely it may resemble such a work from the Middle Ages as opposed to later variants. But in the end, does it really matter? It is a rare part of Steeleye Span’s history and it is certainly an entertaining – if not at times tongue in cheek – mummers play concerning “the death of Winter and triumphant Spring.” And for the first time in over forty years, it can be seen right here.
