Keynsham Mummers Play

The Early Years

Extracting the tooth

Thomas tells that doctor that King George is not dead, although its obvious to everyone that a sword through the heart is fatal. The doctor diagnoses the tooth ache and is then drawn with the help of the rest of the cast. This can get rather boisterous and one year a new King George refused to do it again because he got bruised in the fracas.

The doctor with the tooth

Once the tooth has been extracted it is displayed to the audience and King George is told to "rise up and have a dance".

Earliest picture of the mummers play

This picture is one of the earliest pictures we have. After the doctor has bought King George back to life we do a dance. A dance was noted in the original manuscript of the play but no description of the dance exists so, being a Morris side we do a Morris dance, usually to the tune of "Good King Wenceslas".

Father Christmas with the Shepherdess

What a wonderful couple!! The more astute of you will notice that the dress appears many times throughout the history of the play.


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