Play Report: Mankind




A report by the director, Darragh Greene:

We staged Mankind, a fifteenth-century morality play, designed for occasional Shrovetide performance, on 23rd February 2010. The play cautions its audience against prolonging holiday idleness and recommends honest labour and mindfulness as remedies against the dazzling temptations and tricks of the Devil. We dressed the vices in present-day, topical costumes and encouraged audience participation and interaction, thereby bringing out the play's unusual blend of universal moralization and particular satiric bite.



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from Lines on the Mermaid Tavern

I have heard that on a day
Mine host’s sign-board flew away,
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer’s old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory,
Underneath a new old-sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.
- John Keats (1795–1821)

On Ben Jonson and a Country Man

Ben Johnson in a tavern once began
Rudely to talk to a plain Country man.
And thus it was, Thou dull laborious Moyle
That I beleeve wert made for nought but toyle
For every Acre of thy Land I have
Twenty of wit: Such Acres Sir, are brave,
Replyed the Country man: What great Mistakers
Have we been of your wealth, Mr Wise-Acres.
- Thomas Jordan (from Jewels of Ingenuity. 1660?)

The Sun which doth the greatest comfort bring

...what things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid: heard words that have been
So nimble, so full of subtil flame …
Then when there hath been thrown
Wit able enough to justifie the Town
For three days past, wit that might warrant be
For the whole City to talk foolishly
Till that were cancell'd, and when that was gone,
We left and Air behind us which alone,
Was able to make the two next Companies
Right witty; though but downright fools, more wise.
- Beaumont's epistle to Jonson (1605?)