{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2445",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2445,
    "subject": "Mystery Play",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-11-06T20:51:38+00:00",
    "last": "2000-11-06T20:51:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0095@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jeremy W. Crampton",
        "address": "seltzoid at veriomail.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-11-06T20:51:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Mystery Play",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In an archived message, Gordon Brain wrote:\n\n___\nFrom: \"Gordon Brain\" <gobrain at netcomuk.co.uk>\nSubject: (urth) Mystery Play?\nDate: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:51:24\n\n[...]\nMy first reactions on reading about the play were that it reminded me of a\nmedieval Mystery Play. These were performed out of doors, with scenes\nmounted on a wagon-stage. Their subjects were usually biblical, including\nThe Creation, The Fall & Redemption Of Man, The Last Judgement and so on.\nGod, archangels, devils were portrayed, usually by males but with the\noccasional nude female as Eve or Bathsheba. They were in the vernacular\nwith no attempts at historical realism and were apparently often witty and\nsatirical. In other words popular entertainment of their time. I think that\nthis is the kind of effect that Wolfe has recreated here, but with ideas\nand symbolism relevant to the future age.\n__\n\nIf I can make a slight contribution to this message, if anyone is interested\nin Mystery Plays they are in fact still occasionally performed around\nEngland. I think there are a limited number of places which host them,\nincluding Chester, my hometown, and Wakefield. It was in the latter that I\nmyself appeared in the late 1970s (Devil No. 4, iirc).\n\nI also have here an entire script for the Chester Mystery Plays, which\nappears to have been published in the late 1950s. This is a series of three\nplays \"In the Beginning,\" \"The Nativity,\" and \"The Passion\". The dramatis\npersonae are given below:\n\nFirst Play (entire cast)\nA Citizen of Chester (ie Narrator, gives framing tales and connects them)\nDeus\nLucifer\nAdam\nCain\nAbel\nNoah, Noah's Wife\nShem, Ham, Japhet, Shem's Wife and Ham's Wife and Japhet's Wife\nAbraham\nIsaac\nMoses\nEzekiel\nJeremiah\nDavid\nJoel\nMicah\nEve\nArchangels\nCherubim\nSeraphin\nAngels\nThe Devil, Formerly Lucifer\nCrowd\nA Lion\nA Lamb\n\nSecond Play\nIncludes Herod, Simeon, Mary, The Archangel Gabriel, 3 kings, citizens,\ndemons etc.\n\nThird Play\nIncludes Jesus, disciples, Pilate, soldiers, 1st and 2nd thief, Mary, Mary\nMagdalene, two angels, Jews, and The Devil.\n\nThanks,\n\nJeremy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}