1485: May the Farce be with You
Cast:
- Royal Court
- Jester
- Knights of the Golden Farce
- Friday Knight
- Saturday Knight
- Sunday Knight
- Tuesday Knight
- Bit Parts: Seer and Teller, Manuel, Guinevere the Good, Charles the Squat, Orville the Magnificent, Frederick the Less than Magnificent, Town Crier, Dragon
Synopsis:
Begins with a greeting by the Jester, followed by the Royal Procession. All dialogue is supplied for the Wassail and Boar’s Head festivities. Following the dessert, the Jester enters, introduces the other members of the cast, and involves the audience in collective responses to the upcoming action. The plot begins with the Royal Court seeking a defense against the spell of Halley’s Comet. The Grand Worthy Master and All-Knowing Wise Person, advises that the spell of the comet can be broken only by “a dragon . . . tap dancing to the strains of Deck the Hall with Wows of Halley.”
The Knights of the Golden Farce are charged by the king to make this happen, and would you believe, they do just that? Their opening lines are a chanted verse,
“We are the Knights of the Golden Farce. / We don’t swear and we don’t carse. / Small of wit, but big of hearts / We are the ‘nice guys’ in these parts.”
After five clever and witty stanzas, they finish with,
“Whenever there is trouble, wherever there is strife / Thou wilt find us on the double: sometimes running for our life! / so gallantly through the kingdom, as we discreetly flee, / Though we Knights may not be present . . . May the Farce be with thee!”
After the King tells the Knights of the only way to break the “Curse of Halley’s Comet,”the Knights try to exit gracefully (or un-gracefully, which ever way works.) But the King informs them that the “Curse of the Royal Court” is much worse than the Curse of Halley’s Comet.
“To the Knight who disobeys the King: May a thousand crawling creatures infest his armor and a thousand, thousand, chickadees make nests in his helmet.”
The Knights go on a fearful quest for the Dragon, ending in a “reverse chase,” with the dragon actually on stage in front of the Royal Court!The audience joins in the grand finale, singing Deck the Hall, while the dragon and whole cast tap dance their little hearts out. Of course the spell is broken, and everyone lives happily, if a little zanily, ever after. The text of the audience sing-a-long and simple choreography for the dance are included.
This script is fun for everyone, and especially suitable for church and younger groups. (Who thinks up these things, anyway?)
