1510: The Truth Fairy

Cast:

• Royal Court
• Jester
• Mertonsire
• Truth Fairy
• Lancelot
• Lancelittle
• 2 Pages

Synopsis:

Begins with a greeting and dialogue by the Jester and Mertonsire, followed by the Royal Procession. All dialogue is supplied for the Wassail, the Boar’s Head festivities, and any other words that need to be spoken.

It appears that the King is depressed because he feels he can’t trust anybody, except the Jester, who in the story The Emperor’s New Clothes, was the child that told the Emperor the truth. Emperors don’t forget. A search ensues to find an honestly truthful person to succeed the Jester, when he retires or goes to that Green Room in the Sky. They enlist the aid of the Truth Fairy, who can ferret out the truth in anyone who approaches her, including Mertonsire, two senators from the House of Lords, played by Sir Lancelot and Sir Lancelittle, a Courtier, Two roving actors, also played by Sir Lancelot and Sir Lancelittle, and a two-person giant, yet again played by Sir Lancelot and Sir Lancelittle.

I get the impression they liked to play a lot.

The audience has a small, but important role. They react to the Truth Fairy’s take on the applicants for the Jester’s apprentice with BOO ON YOU, THAT’S NOT TRUE if the applicants are being less than truthful, and YEA, VERILY, YEA! THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE! if they are telling the truth.

This is a captivating script, sure to be a favorite among Madrigal Dinner performers and audiences. It even has a moral, which is hard to find these days. “There is some truth in each one of us, and because we are human, there is also some untruth. Let us be alive with the truth in all our dealings and trust others to be the same.” This is most certainly true!