Nativity story is beautifully reborn

York Nativity Play, at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston, on Thursday, December 8, Friday, December 9 and Saturday, December 10

'Fresh' might seem a strange description of a play dating from 600 or 700 years ago, and performed for 49 consecutive years at Aldermaston church, with the same inspired director and largely the same cast, in the same costumes, accompanied by the same music. Yet the impact is still one of directness and immediacy.

The story could not be more familiar, yet one waits eagerly for the next moment, so vividly do the actors - and the text itself - draw the audience into a shared experience. It is also a visual experience of great beauty, irresistibly suggesting medieval illuminated manuscripts in glowing red and gold, with the principal figures attracting veneration, while the more earthy shepherds bring daily life into the margins. The audience are time travellers, living on three levels at once. We are drawn back to what happened in Nazareth, in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago; but we also experience these events as they were seen by a medieval audience of labourers and craftsmen, hearing saints and angels speaking in their own dialect, not in the Latin of the Church. Medieval theology is woven into the dialogue, and both the shepherds on the hillside and the high priest in the temple deliver an uncompromisingly Christian message.

We are in our own time too, in the context of our own lives, hearing a version that is clear and comprehensible, but keeps the structure and some of the vocabulary of medieval thought.

The York Nativity is not presented as a theatrical performance, with star ratings and applause. It is offered as a devotional preparation for Christmas, an audible and visible prayer. Succeeding generations of Aldermaston families, and singers drawn from all around, give us clarity of diction - dignified or robustly cheerful as required - great visual beauty and music worthy of the angelic choir.

Next year will see the 50th birthday of this offering. Try not to miss it.

ANNE KIGGELL

Story of simple faith

Fiftieth Aldermaston nativity play is the true heart of Christmas

The York Nativity Play, at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston, on Monday, December 4, Thursday, December 7, Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9

It was with 'joyful steps' that audiences sped to Aldermaston's Church of St Mary the Virgin for last week's performances of this play from the 15th-century York Mystery Cycle. Now in its 50th year of production, the play retains its ability to evoke an awestruck wonder.

Music played by members of The Wessex Society of Recorder Players started the process of taking those present back to medieval times and single notes of The Noble Son of Jesse, quietly played on a psaltery, heralded the arrival of Mary, the embodiment of motherhood, to hear from a gloriously robed and glittering Gabriel (Chris Newman) that she was chosen by God to bear his son.

Catherine Ramsell made a most joyous and serene Mary, face alight throughout, while Nick Caiger-Smith was exceptional as Joseph, making it clear how difficult it was to accept his young wife's pregnancy, until a second visit from Gabriel brought enlightenment.

They headed a team of extraordinarily talented local people, many of whom have been appearing in the play for years. For them it must be not only demanding work, but a very special part of their lives.

There could surely be no better place to tell the familiar story than this beautiful 12th-century church and as the lighting rose, and diminished, extinguishing altogether for the birth, it seemed as though we had all strayed into a medieval painting in which principal characters were brought to life.

Adding to this effect were the splendid costumes, many preserved from the earliest performances with loving care, along with several of the props, including two doves presented at the Temple by Joseph.

And behind it all came magnificent 15th and 16th-century music as the choir, under the direction of Peter Denny, sang tenderly and clearly from the cramped, chilly ringing chamber, the tunes chosen 50 years before.

It was encouraging to see young lads taking part, for this is a tradition which must continue as a unique reminder in our materialistic world that it is not overflowing shopping trolleys and expensive presents which are at the heart of Christmas, but this story of simple faith.

CAROLINE FRANKLIN

A message for all

Fifty-first Aldermaston nativity play still has something fresh to give

The York Nativity Play, at St Mary the Virgin Church, Aldermaston, from Tuesday, December 4 to Sunday, December 9

The best antidote I have found to battling Christmas shopping crowds, carpark queues and internet checkouts was stepping back to the culture and costume of the 1400s and a dialogue of pre-Shakespearean rhyming couplets in the York Mystery Play. It was performed for the 51st time this week in the beautiful, unrestored church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston, which is also of that period.

So, as someone who has had opportunity over the years to explain the nativity story to others, I was both surprised and gratified to find new depth of meaning in Joseph's plodding confusion, the aged, shuffling Simeon's astonishment and joy at being able to see the prediction of the Scriptures fulfilled, and the growing sense of destiny for Mary, changed by her encounter with a majestic angel Gabriel.

The York Mystery Plays are some of the oldest surviving mystery plays, the cycle of which covered the whole of the salvation landscape from beginnings to final fulfilment, with each story or tableau acted out on a cart by a particular trademan's guild. Originally, the procession moved slowly through the city for the midsummer festival, stopping at various performance stations, a devotional form of the modern carnival procession on its lorry trailer and without the award rosettes.

Using a 20th-century adaptation by playwright E. Martin-Browne, director Pat Eastop has taken the six tableaux which cover the announcement to Mary, the visit to Bethlehem and the birth, Herod's suspicions and the visit of the Magi, and set them all around the audience in chancel, side chapel and bell-tower of the church, to present one moving episode which, however, requires one to settle down to medieval pace and language.

But far from sounding banal, the result has great impact and is humorous at times, without losing any of its message. The metre of the verses, originally written by the York clergy, varies according to the urgency and mood and communicates in a way that modern language cannot approach -perhaps because it makes one think about the words.

Interwoven, we recognise a version of Mary's Magnificat and Simeon's Nunc Dimittis, and the acting is strongly reinforced by early carols, in Latin and vernacular which, if not exactly of the period (four-part harmony, first devised at Reading Abbey, became popular a little later) fitted like a glove.

Although presented as a drama in its own right, welcoming anyone of any faith or belief, there was a powerful underlying message. Indeed one role was that of the vicar, the Rev Pete Steele, who appeared near the beginning, like any other actor, to set the scene in a very approachable way and explain the meaning of Jesus' birth. His voice was heard again in words of blessing at the end, all seamlessly part of the presentation.

IAN GREIG