Some of Britain's earliest plays are due to be held at one of the country's oldest working theatre spaces.
There is now just under a month to go until productions of the country’s oldest surviving written plays are performed in what is arguably Britain’s oldest outdoor working theatre space, the historic Plen an Gwari or ‘Playing Place’ in St Just, Cornwall.
From September 4 - 18 2021, under autumn skies, the 14th century Ordinalia Trilogy will be presented for the first time in almost 20 years and only the third recorded time in around 300 years.
St Just-in-Penwith is the nearest town to Land’s End, situated in the craggy far west of Cornwall, on the edge of the moors and close to the rugged north coast.
Once the mining centre of the peninsula, granite cottages and disused engine houses dominate the landscape.
200 years before Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, there would have been a Plen an Gwari in most towns in Cornwall, where medieval mystery and miracle plays were performed in native Cornish by the local community.
Now only two of these ‘playing places’ remain and St Just’s Plen an Gwari is proudly one of them.
Here audiences will be able to see all three Ordinalia plays in one week, which will be repeated during the second week.
The Ordinalia Trilogy is hugely significant to Cornish culture and these mystery plays were last performed in St Just in 2004.
In fact, some of the actors previously involved are reprising their involvement this time round
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The three plays collectively cover the whole scope of the bible stories from the beginning of the world to Doomsday.
As they were written in Medieval Cornish, they actually form the basis for our understanding of today’s contemporary Cornish language.
When the Reformation took hold and the place where they were likely written, Glasney College in nearby Penryn, was destroyed, someone made sure the manuscripts were safely hidden.
The productions of the 14th century plays will be complimented by a two-week festival of Cornish culture to include workshops such as Cornish wrestling, dance and town trail tours.
The performances have coincided with the loaning of the medieval manuscripts to Cornwall’s new archive centre, Kresen Kernow – they are currently housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford University and in the National Museum of Wales.
Ordinalia Artistic Director, Jason Squibb, said: "When else would you have the unique and rare opportunity to sit down in the exact same spot that someone like you sat some 500 years ago, to watch more or less the exact same production?
"They may have giggled in the same parts, sung to the same tune and rejoiced at the exact same scenes.
"Can you imagine a more culturally and historically significant experience?
"We are incredibly passionate about again performing The Ordinalia trilogy in 2021 in the homeland of these epic medieval plays."
For more information about the St Just Ordinalia project, the performances and other key activities over the fortnight, please visit: stjustordinalia.com
Tickets start from £16 and for the entire two-week festival priced from £90.
They can be purchased from: hallforcornwall.co.uk/playhouse-tickets-shows/st-just-ordinalia-2021/festival
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