1504: Eine Kleine Knight

( 1504: Eine Kleine Knight-Shtick or Surely, You Joust )

Cast:

  • Royal Court
  • Jester
  • Mertonsire, Lord of Misrule
  • King Will Hale
  • Queen Beatrice Hale (Queen Bea)
  • Supporting Characters
    • Princess Ava Hale
    • Dark Knight
    • Messenger/Town Crier
    • King (Part of Royal Court)
    • Queen (Part of Royal Court)
    • Knights of the Squarish Table
    • Long Knight, Short Knight, Sleepless Knight, Late Knight
  • Really a bit part
    • Thatcher Troutbottom (Fishmonger)

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 and every other word uttered in the performance, except maybe words like “bravo,” “great performance.” The King is hosting a tournament for the bravest and boldest of Knights. After the Jester greets the audience, Mertonsire enters and tells of the imminent arrival of King Will Hale,who is visiting the tournament with his family, his entourage, his dog, and his attitude. Unbeknownst to the king, his family, his entourage, and his attitude,the Jester, their only son, is not whom they think. (The dog is suspicious.) Actually he is no noble jesting jouster, but a humble jousting jester.

The Knights of the Squarish Table are the favorites in the tournament, but as knights, their thoughts are pure, their intentions are just, and their actions are just thoughts. As their knightly duty, they must help the Jester win and hence become a knight, since only knights can win a tournament. (It’s a union thing.) The big prize for the tournament is the Jester’s big sister’s hand in marriage. . . and not only her hand. But the knights don’t know that the big sister is his sister or that he is her little brother, or that their daddy is King W. Hale, or that his winning would be a bad idea. Big Sis reasons that if her brother wins the tournament, she will be free to marry her true love. . . a lowly, smelly fish monger. (How she figured that out, I will never know.)
Can the Jester win the tournament? Will big Sis have to marry a knight in shining armor, or a “man in a can” as they were called? Wait, does tuna fish come in a can? Does the fish monger sell tuna fish? Am I reading too much into this? Will he be mongering among us? Enjoy this rollicking show with a jousting finale that your audience will love!