Festive Festival Of Mummers

Welcome, one and all, to our Festive Festival Of Mummers!

Featuring:
Godalming Guisers – An age old tale of good versus evil, death and rebirth with the help of potions and dodgy
medical practices, rabbits and icebergs.
Prize Old Mummers – offering a traditional mummers play, with a modern twist.
Farnborough Mummers – performing plays from Hampshire, ideally in the place that they were noted down.

plus Morris Dancers including Fishbourne Mill Morris from Chichester.

Running Order:
1pm Event Opens
1.15pm Goldaming Guisers
1.40pm Morris Dancing
1.55pm Prize Old Mummers
2.10pm Morris Dancing
2.30pm Farnborough Mummers
2.45pm Morris Dancing

Charities collected for:
Each Mummers group has their own chosen charity which they support at every event. Therefore, at today’s event we’ll be collecting for:
Naomi House Children’s Hospice
Old People’s Day Centre in Farncombe

More About Mummers:
Mummers’ plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, wrenboys, and galoshins). Historically, mummers’ plays consisted of informal groups of costumed community members that visited from house to house on various holidays. Today the term refers especially to a play in which a number of characters are called on stage, two of whom engage in a combat, the loser being revived by a doctor character.
Taken from Wikipedia

More about Godalming Guisers:
Formed in 2010 in response to a request from the then vicar of Godalming, Canon Mervyn Roberts, Godalming Guisers are a group of mostly Morris Dancers, Bell Ringers and artisans from the local area.
We perform every year on the Monday before Christmas Eve in a selection of town centre venues, when we collect on behalf of the Old People’s Day Centre in Farncombe.
The play was originally adapted from the Guildford play, performed on 12th night in Guildford every year, but it also has elements pinched from the Chiddingfold Tipteerers and has been rewritten and ‘Godalmingised’ with the addition of local characters.

More about Prize Old Mummers:
Over centuries, people have performed Mummers Plays to entertain folk in the depths of winter. There are various traditions of Mumming, plays are known as a “Robin Hood” play or a “George and Dragon” play.
Another style is a “Wooing” play where a young man courts a Lady but is rejected and he is persuaded to join the army The Lady then accepts the hand of a Clown or Fool. However, Prize Old Mummers have reversed the role and in our play the Woman tries it on with King George, failing that, the Foreign Knight, The Devil or even The Doctor. This plot in then interwoven with the George and Dragon tale.
Prize Old Mummers are so called because the magic elixir used by the Doctor to raise the dead combatants is a bottle of Prize Old Ale, formerly brewed by George Gale and Co of Horndean. The brewery ceased trading in 2006 but the name of their very fine barley wine lives on in the name of our mumming side.
The play, while having a very traditional appearance, is littered with references to current affairs and issues of the day. References to popular culture, environmental issues and political satire are used. Dressed in tatter costumes with faces obscured in many shades and colours, they endeavour to keep alive a tradition while raising funds for charity.

More about Farnborough Mummers:
Farnborough Mummers were formed in the 1970s and have performed at various festivals in the past including Broadstairs. They have performed traditional plays in the original villages and will be performing a George play in the style of North Hampshire at this event. For one of their significant anniversaries they got together for the day and they performed 6 traditional plays in the villages where they were collected.

This event is free to enjoy, but do please give generously, as we’ll be collecting for the above chosen charities.

As well as our Festive Festival Of Mummers Event, we host a number of events at the brewery throughout the year. Please find out more information via our Brewery Event Calendar.