Pace Egg

So, we went down to St George's Square at 11.30 on Good Friday to watch a group of boys from the local high school perform the Midgley Pace Egg Play. I've given you the link to an amazing archive film of a performance in the 60s by boys from the same school. It's an ancient tradition round here, that was revived in the 50s by a drama teacher at the school, and has been maintained ever since. They perform it about five times, in different locations around the valley in the course of Good Friday, and are often hoarse, wet and cold by the end! Meanwhile a local am dram group perform another version every year too, similarly touring it round the valley throughout the day. We didn't go to theirs this year, but last year watched the two back to back in pouring rain in Weaver's Square in Heptonstall. This year's high school Pace Egg was a vintage rendition, with lots of great visual jokes about boys and their different genres of absurd stylised combat, from Star Wars to Kung Fu films to computer games to Dr Who. What I love is how the traditional shape of the play provides the bones of the thing, but then there is lots of space for contemporary improvisation, just as there would probably always have been (though the 60s troupe did seem a little more earnest about their rendition.)

What does it have to do with Easter? Good question. Something about death and rebirth, maybe. It's essentially about St George vanquishing all challengers. But then there's a doctor, who brings one of the vanquished back to life with a magic potion. A thoroughly English display of derring-do, and maybe on one level quite unappealing (violent, macho, jingoistic). But, well, I love it. I love the tradition of it, the mad costumes, the bizarre lines, the pantomime of it, and the fact that adolescent boys are not too cool to be part of this local institution and to have a great time with it. It always brings tears to my eyes, as all rituals tend to these days, socking it straight to my heart with messages about time and aging, community, continuity and renewal. Maybe that's what it has to do with Easter...