1488: A Midwinter’s Dream Knight

Cast:

• Royal Court
• Jester
• Jack the Knight
• Ashes-Zelda (Cousin of Cinder-Ella)
• Knight Crawler (The villain)
• Para-Rhymer #1
• Para-Rhymer #2
• Hairy Godfather (One line of speech, one 42-second appearance)
• Unicorn (If a real unicorn is unavailable or un-trainable, two people who are trainable, can portray the opposite ends of a unicorn while wearing a unicorn costume.)

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 re-enters speaking in rhyme while he sets up the entrance of the wandering troupe of actors, who agree to perform a masque or “anything that tickles your fantasy.” The Courtiers make suggestions to the actors,

“I would like a masque about Cinderella, or someone like her . . . beautiful . . . but dirty.”

They also want a hero, a villain, a unicorn,

“And they must be knights, except for the unicorn.”

The actors are assisted in the masque by a pair of rhymers (The Para-Rrhymers) who always talk in rhyme.

“We don’t juggle, we don’t dance, / We don’t leave rhymes up to chance. / We make rhymes, that’s what we do; / We make rhymes just fit for you.”

It is the Para-Rhymers whose task it is to tell this mixed-up story.

The play begins with Ashes-Zelda (So named because she was spent a lot of her time sitting in the ashes and cinders in the corner of the fireplace. Her cousin, Cinderella, is better known, but I have no idea why.) sitting where she usually sits. Jack, formerly of Jack and the Beanstalk, knocks on her hovel door trying to sell what he thinks is his mother’s cow, but which actually is a unicorn. A few old “cow” jokes follow, but Ashes-Zelda seriously thinks Jack is actually her Midwinter’s Dream Knight come to take her away. But the plot thickens as the villainous cad also appears at her door trying to claim Ashes-Zelda as his bride-to-be.

The masque turns out to be a merry blend of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel, The plot of this wild fantasy is resolved with the prince marrying the maiden, the villain changing his villainous ways, and the entire cast singing that old favorite, “Deck the Hall and Deck the Villain.” This zany script is a pure delight for the performers and the audience. It is extensively rhymed throughout.