Christmas Plays by Oberufer: E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

For hundreds of years ordinary folk in the small Austrian village of Oberufer on the Danube gathered in the local tavern at Christmas time to perform these plays to their neighbours. With their roots lost in medieval times, the plays gradually evolved to incorporate a unique mixture of broad peasant humour and deep reverence in their celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. The Paradise Play serves as a Preface, presenting the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, but with the promise of future salvation through Christ. The Shepherds Play follows with its portrayal of the birth of Jesus in a stable where he is sought out by a group of simple shepherds. The Kings Play, the final in the trilogy, depicts the visit of three wise Kings to the birthplace of the 'King of Humanity', and the murderous measures taken by Herod to try and thwart Jesus's mission. This revised edition of the plays - eminently suitable for amateur and professional companies alike - offers a clear layout of the texts, greatly elaborated director's and make-up indications, stage and lighting directions, and detailed costume designs illustrated in colour.

Leseprobe

CHRISTMAS PLAYS

FROM OBERUFER

CHRISTMAS PLAYS

FROM OBERUFER

The Paradise Play—The Shepherds Play—The Kings Play

Translated by A.C. Harwood Edited by Hélène Jacquet

Sophia Books

Sophia Books Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Sophia Books 2007 An imprint of Rudolf Steiner Press

First published in English in earlier versions in 1944, 1961, 1973 and 1993

© Rudolf Steiner Press 2007

The moral right of the author has been asserted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 423 0

Cover by Andrew Morgan Design Typeset by DP Photosetting, Neath, West Glamorgan

Dedicated to the first actors of these plays in England: the teachers of Michael Hall School, Sussex

CONTENTS

Translator's Preface

Editor's Introduction

Director's Notes

Costume Indications

Make-up Indications

THE PLAYS

Paradise Play

Shepherds Play

Kings Play

COLOUR PLATES

Costume Indications

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The Plays here translated were collected in the forties of the nineteenth century by Karl Julius Schröer—the friend and teacher of Rudolf Steiner—from the little island of Oberufer on the Danube near Pressburg, close to the frontiers of Austria and Hungary. Some time in the sixteenth or early seventeenth century a group of German people had migrated there from the neighbourhood of Lake Constance and had taken with them the cycle of religious plays which they had received by tradition from their ancestors. When Schröer collected the plays, the parts were still hereditary in certain families; no complete copy existed but each family treasured a manuscript of the words of one particular part. Surrounded as they were by people of a different nation and speaking a different language, the peasants of Oberufer preserved unaltered, in a way found in no other similar German plays, both the text itself and the tradition of acting.

The preparation for the Plays and the manner of acting have been thus described by Rudolf Steiner, who received the account from Schröer himself. In the autumn, after harvest, the peasants who were to take part met together and rehearsals began. All parts were played by men, as in the Elizabethan theatre, and during the time of rehearsal all members of the cast had to lead—as far as they could—a moral and respectable life, abstaining alike from visits to alehouses and from the singing of bawdy songs. Before the actual performance the whole company went in procession through the village. They were headed by the ‘Tree-singer’, who carried in his hand the small ‘Paradise Tree’—a kind of symbol of the Tree of Life—and the rear was brought up by the ‘Star-singer’, who bore a golden star on the end of multiple wooden scissors—a larger version of a familiar children's toy—which could shoot the star over the other actors and hold it aloft over the head of Mary. On reaching the inn where the performance was to take place, the company went in to dress, with the exceptions of the Angel, who stayed outside, and the Devil, who ran riot through the town, blowing a cowhorn and driving everyone he could into the inn to see the performance. Once in the inn the audience arranged itself in a horseshoe and the performance began, the Tree-singer acting as prologue to the Paradise Play and the Star-singer to the Shepherds Play. After these two plays, of which the Paradise Play was acted second, a third satirical comedy—somewhat in the Greek fashion—was added, in which, however, the actors who had played the Holy Characters were not allowed to take part. The Play of the Three Kings was acted at another time and under somewhat different circumstances, being in closer connection with the church. The Paradise Play and Shepherds Nativity Play, however, were always associated together, for in the Middle Ages they still knew what modern man has forgotten, that there is no meaning in the Redemption without the Fall, and that

Had not the apple taken been

The apple taken been

Then had never our Lady,

A-been Heaven's Queen.

The form of the Plays seems to point to the very origin of drama. The actors, or singers as they were called, sing a song in procession, after which the characters concerned come forward and act what has just been sung, while the rest of the company seat themselves at the back or side of the stage. This ancient form is especially marked in the case of the Paradise Play, which is really one long ballad interspersed with dramatic scenes. The Devil acts as scene-shifter in the Paradise Play; and the Devil for Herod, and the Page for the Kings in the Three Kings Play. Traditionally, the Angel in the Shepherds Play carries a star on a staff, and the Angel in the Kings Play has a picture of Mother and Child beneath the star.

A word may be added about the translation. When there is much wonderful poetry in such old English plays as the Coventry Plays, it may seem superfluous to translate Christmas Plays from another tongue. Experience has shown, however, that these particular plays, which are both more childlike and more dramatic than the old English plays, make a deeper impression on children than any other old plays available. For a dreadful alternative waits on the would-be-writer of modern Nativity Plays. To make the thing realistic, and convince the audience that it really did happen and a real baby was born in a real stable, he has to introduce language from a life with so different an idiom that it falsifies the picture of the birth of a child in an age when the bearing of children was treated both more simply and more spiritually than it is today. Or he may treat the theme poetically, with the almost inevitable consequence of reducing the matter to a beautiful dream, in which idealized shepherds salute a symbolic child. The life of the Middle Ages, however, was still sufficiently akin to the time of the Birth of Christ for the Nativity to be represented in its own language and forms.

The original plays are in dialect and lose enormously in vigour and colour in any non-dialect translation. Unfortunately, most modern English people have been robbed of their birthright of a dialect, and, being myself one of those unfortunates, I have been forced to put the translation into a kind of biblical English with some deliberate archaisms. I hope that readers will find the language on the right side of Wardour Street. But the plays are not meant to be read, and in actual performance the translation has stood the test of a good many annual performances. The two Prologues probably form the least satisfactory part. They can either be omitted, or provide the basis for such local pleasantries as may suit the particular performance.

The music composed by Leopold van der Pals on the basis of the original folk melodies may be procured through the publishers of this translation.

For this English version music has also been composed by Dr Brien Masters, to whom enquiries should be addressed at Michael Hall, Kidbrooke Park, Forest Row, Sussex.

A.C.H.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Having produced, watched, performed in, studied and researched the Christmas Plays from Oberufer for over 45 years, my husband and I have often been asked by colleagues how to produce them. It is hoped that the practical indications added to this new edition will help those who face this task.

The plays have now developed a tradition based on indications given by Rudolf Steiner when producing the plays in Dornach in the first decades of the twentieth century and which were written down by Else Klevers with the help of Marie Steiner. These should not be viewed as a hindrance to the director's creativity but rather as a help to understand the deep meaning of the plays, which Rudolf Steiner took the trouble and time to produce and introduce at every performance. In an address given on 30 December 1917 he said:

One may say, indeed, that these plays belong to those things which have unfortunately been lost, have disappeared, and which one so gladly, so gladly, would like to have afresh. For they are indeed such as if, through them, one reminded oneself of what is connected so intimately with the being of one's spiritual life.

In Oberufer's time the plays were done in a very different manner. They were all performed on the same day from 3 o’clock onwards. If in the evening there were still a few enthusiastic spectators left in their seats, then the plays began again. This sometimes went on until the small hours until the very last guest had gone. Oddly enough, the performance started with the Nativity Play (Shepherds Play), followed by the Paradise Play and concluded with a Carnival Play (‘The Shoemaker and the Tailor’), thus continuing the ancient tradition of the Satyr players.

The plays were performed in a tavern, the acting being done in the central corridor. The spectators sat on benches, on either side and at one end of the room. The fourth side was curtained off and was used as a changing room and entrance for everyone. The choral procession of the company went along the walls which surrounded the spectators. The only props were a stool for Mary, a little stable carried by Joseph, and, for the Tree-singer, a man-sized juniper tree. The greeting of the Tree-singer was a real one: each person, when greeted, stood up and raised his hat, as did the ‘whole worshipping town’!

The text of plays was not spoken but chanted in medieval singsong. The chanting players walked up and down the aforementioned passage taking four big strong steps in one direction, then, on the fourth step, turning and going in the opposite direction. Those players who were not playing at any one time sat on a bench. In addition to the chanting were the songs proper, usually carols such as Vom Himmel Hoch.

It is clear that with his new productions, Rudolf Steiner gave a new lease of life to these plays and planted them firmly in our time.

Milenko Kaukler researched the history of the plays and wrote:

Schröer's texts of these plays were significantly improved in four ways by Rudolf Steiner. First, he separated the Nativity Play from the Kings Play, which over the course of the centuries had been intermingled. Secondly, he recreated lost passages such as the part of the Tree-singer in the Paradise Play and the Shepherds supper scene. Thirdly, he began to correct corrupt and meaningless passages. Finally, Steiner adapted the awkwardly artificial language of the plays (which in the Oberufer text remains very close to Luther's ‘Hochdeutsch’—’High German’— and shows only the strong influence of village dialects) to the dialect of Oberufer, particularly in the more folksy parts. As an Austrian he could do that.

The Oberufer plays are performed in many languages and in many schools, homes, anthroposophical institutions, etc., totalling far in excess of 500 performances each year. This makes these plays probably among some of the most performed in the world.

A.C. Harwood, a poet in his own right (The Voice of Cecil Harwood, Rudolf Steiner Press) gave the English-speaking world an excellent translation of the plays, with beautiful rhythms and an exquisite language. Yet, when asked, he willingly changed a few lines and added one to help give the exact meaning of the original play; these have now been included in this edition. Some lines were changed in the four different editions, and in this latest one I have used the text most performed at Michael Hall. Finally, in the German publication the order of the Shepherds Play is the following: song, Angel's speech, song, Annunciation, song, the Journey to Bethlehem. For the sake of clarity and the time-span involved this order was already changed in the very first edition of the English text, hence following the text of the original publication by J. Schröer (Keck und Compagnie, Vienna 1858). In Germany, to accompany the plays, the music by Van der Pals is mostly performed. Here we use music by Brien Masters, a talented musician and composer who gave us a music well tailored to our times.

To do justice to the plays, they should be acted without pathos, in a dignified way and with simple humour. Heinz Muller in Spuren auf dem Weg (Mellinger Verlag, Stuttgart) recalls:

And the masterly thing that the Tree-singer has to create is that purely through the words, disciplines and gestures he must make everything living. With Rudolf Steiner the work became living just through the peasant style of the performance; the word become spirit under his powerful creation.

And further:

Shortly before the Paradise Play performance, the Tree-singer came to Rudolf Steiner and said: ‘Oh Herr Doctor, I have had a complete blackout; the earth seems to give away under my feet.’ Rudolf Steiner put his hand firmly on the actor's back and, saying ‘Nonsense! You are as fit as a fiddle,’ he gave him a tremendous push and the Tree-singer found himself on stage and the play began.

The plates giving an impression of costume designs, based on Rudolf Steiner's directions, were painted by the Editor's father, Eugen Witta, who saw the plays produced by Rudolf Steiner many times while working as a young architect on the first Goetheanum. He later produced the plays for many years in France.

Hélène Jacquet

But if in aught we have gone astray

And shown your worships what was not fit

Blame not our will, but our lack of wit

Think it, but well, so all's made right—

And we wish you from God Almighty, Good Night