View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy

Tuesday 17 November 2020

Warburton Souling 2020, Covid-19 edition

The Warburton Souling Play, one of many traditional ritual plays performed up and down the country, was revived in the late 1970s after break of over 40 years.

Setting off for the first night's performance - pre-Covid-19 days

Our Play is performed over a period of 2 weeks, kicking off on the 1st November each year – unless that date falls on a Sunday, in such cases we start the following day. We never perform on a Sunday.

You can read more about our Play here. 

We perform mainly in pubs (tsk) during the two week season….and we, er, rarely go thirsty.

 

Beelzebub, thirst quenched

We’re determined that our local tradition doesn’t die out as so many other plays have. Continuity is important but Covid-19 posed a threat to this year’s tour.

The Enterer


Turkish Champion

 

Enter Zoom.

In order for the Play to be performed safely it was agreed that the Play should be performed remotely from our respective homes using technology. A bit of clever editing has resulted in this:


 

If all goes to plan we should be hitting the road again next November – I certainly hope so, this year has been a disaster for many. To quote a certain ex-Prime Minister, ‘things can only get better’… can’t they?

The show must go on…as somebody else once (probably) said.

 


Soul Cakes - made by the lovely Honor. Last year. Obv.

6 comments:

  1. Thank goodness there is now the technology to enable these these things to continue. However, it is still one step removed from the real thing. Hopefully normality (?) may allow these traditions to continue in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must admit, it did feel rather odd doing the Play as we did - but at least we did it in 2020, roll on 2021. I think.

      Delete
  2. Brilliant! Well done everyone! Really enjoyed that! :-) xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Erica - we enjoyed doing it!

      Delete
  3. Fabulous! Great version.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you 'Unknown'!
      It's quite remarkable how similar, and disimilar, these ritual plays are.

      Delete

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