Biblical lessons in dramatic splendour

By Alfreda de Silva

A noteworthy aspect of Christmas celebrations of older times throughout the Christian world was the accent on the significance of its drama. This seems to have faded away with time.

Following the rituals obviously inherited from medieval England, it was customary for strolling players in large open lorries to perform the Christmas story from door to door on Christmas night. This was so when I was a child.

I shall never forget a childhood Christmas, when I was four years old. I was woken up by my grandmother at midnight. All around me were the high, sweet sounds of violins, and in a night full of stars I saw the angels.

There were some 40 of them of various sizes, massed in tiers that rose from a height of about five to 25 feet on the stage of the open lorry. This was a presentation by the Sinhala congregation of St. John's Church, Nugegoda.

The musicians were hidden out of sight, and the singing angels formed a background to Mary, Joseph and the Child and the shepherds at their feet. Their faces were green in the glare of the gas lights. There was 'a glory that shone round about them' and brought the Christmas story in Sinhala alive to me.

Incidentally, the playwright, director and chief musician of the group was a kinsman, a young man of our village called George Samarakoon, who much later on his return from Shantiniketan, was known as Ananda Samarakoon - the creator of this country's National Anthem.

By the 4th or 5th century AD, the Latin drama of Europe had begun to be neglected, and at festivals like Christmas and Easter there was a revival of popular shows that included acting and speaking. These plays had strands of folk-lore and re-enactment of ancient pagan beliefs. They were nature myths. In one of them a figure representing winter was put to death and then revived.

The Church service included several dramatic elements and they were not only attractive but brought religion and its understanding closer to the people.

As the years went by Gospel stories were illustrated by 'living pictures' especially connected with the Christian festivals that were being celebrated at the time. These were called Mystery plays because they were the dramatic representation of some Biblical themes such as the Nativity or the Resurrection.

It was common at that time in tenth century England for priests and choirboys to take part in these plays, which were held in the vicinity of a church or in the church itself.

Miracle plays in which the theme passed from the scriptures to the lives of the saints were more varied.

Morality plays were a further advance where virtues and vices were presented on stage as allegorical characters of much liveliness.

As the plays developed so did the stagecraft of the performing priests and very elaborate structures were used as sets. Church drama was a regular feature of medieval England. In fact, in the 10th century AD the church seems to have been the only place where one could watch a play.

The purpose of church drama was to help the ordinary people who did not understand the Latin service of the time to grasp some of the truths expressed in the Bible.

This type of drama was so popular that people who never went to church flocked to see the plays.

However the church was compelled to discontinue them when an over-enthusiastic public turned the churchyard into an amusement park.

But the plays continued to be staged by craftsmen and students supported by the merchants' guilds. Strolling players presenting Biblical themes in open wagons fitted with stage and props drawn by horses, were also popular at the time.

It is encouraging to note that in recent times medieval play cycles have been revived in some parts of England.

In 1970, when Bishop Emeritus Swithin Fernando was Vicar of St. Michael's Church, Polwatte, we staged a colourful drama of the Nativity within the Church. The script was a twenty-year-old one we had written for a performance by students in a suburban girls' school. It was adapted for a large cast..... of adults and children.

Many of the members of the congregation and the children of St. Michael's gave wonderful support. They acted, sang in the choir, made the simple but dramatic sets, helped drape the many characters in their costumes and even provided us with special lighting. And Lylie Godridge was there from another parish at our invitation to adorn the performance with his singing.

The staging was unorthodox and moving. Angels of all ages, the youngest of them not quite four, danced on the chancel steps, climbing them to surround the characters of the Holy Family, under the thatch constructed on the chancel.

Behind them in front of the sanctuary, an impressive Angel Gabriel blew his horn to proclaim the glad tidings.

Actors dressed as shepherds, kings and townsmen in their native costumes from different countries (and here we had strong support from several embassies) brought gifts to the child.

But these gifts were not of the tangible kind. They were God-given talents: Each dancer gave us a glimpse of joyous and reverential movement; the singer glorified God in the language of his or her land; there was the lyricism of poetry and a small musician among the many on stage, played for the child a flute-full of music.

And as the performers filed into the body of the church from the chancel, and walked down the aisle with their lighted candles, the congregation joined in that timeless hymn: O come all Ye Faithful. Father Swithin brought our act of worship to a close with prayer and benediction.

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