1501: The Sorry Tellers or Once Upon a Whine

Cast:

• Royal Court
• Jester
• Mertonsire
• Lord of Misrule
• Sylvester (From the Shire of Sorry)
• Sylvania (Also from the Shire of Sorry)
• Sylvia (One more from the Shire of Sorry)
• Cyril (Sorry, but he, too, is from Sorry)
• Town Crier (Male or Female)
• Guard/Royal Ranker

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.

It is the year 1501 and the King has decreed that a Story Telling Contest is to be held to determine the best story teller in the Kingdom. Many People arrive for the contest including four from the Shire of Sorry, a small insignificant spec of a shire in a far corner of the Kingdom. The Jester, always in the middle of everything, is upset that he is not already considered the best story teller in the Kingdom. Sensing that his job is on the line, he decides to enter the contest incognito. (Actually a “cognito” was a small mule-drawn carriage disguised to look like a moving bush. But that’s probably more than you want to know.)

Mertonsire, a pompous, bombastic fop of a man who is always right in his own mind even though he is more often wrong in everyone else’s mind, also decides to enter the contest. He enters with one driving purpose: the prize. Alliances are made and broken, and repaired again with glue.

Who will win? Who are these story telling strangers from the Shire of Sorry, the Sorry Story Tellers? Who in the world is Little Red Goldy Boxer Shorts? Is that really an audience member telling a story? This clever and witty script has become a favorite of madrigal dinner producers (or “Mad Prods” as we affectionately refer to them) and madrigal dinner audiences (Mad Auds).

This script is great fun to perform and rehearse.