It’s not every day you see sheep penned up in the piazza outside Broadcasting House or the Archangel Gabriel appearing on the tower of the adjacent All Soul’s. But this was all part of the Wintershall Nativity Play, which has been performed for the past 25 years in the Surrey hills and now makes an annual day-trip to London. It’s an impressive affair with a vast, predominantly amateur, cast, and boasting glorious music by, among others, John Tavener, Michael Tippett and John Rutter.
Peter Hutley, who conceived the idea and wrote the script, offers a fairly straight retelling of the nativity taken from the gospels of Matthew and Luke: there’s none of the parodic robustness of the medieval mystery plays – where the birth of Christ is juxtaposed with the hilarious episode of Mak the sheep-stealer.
The staging, by Ashley Herman and Kathy Longbottom, makes good use of the space. The action starts in the open air with a donkey-borne Mary and Joseph making their way across the piazza and, although I half hoped we might see them turned away by a nearby hotel, they are hospitably welcomed at All Soul’s.
Once inside the church, a real, bawling baby Jesus was quickly replaced by a bundle of swaddling clothes. But the drama of the story comes across. Joseph at first reacts angrily to news of Mary’s pregnancy; a heavily-bearded, gold-breastplated Archangel Michael (the professional James Burke-Dunsmore) later appears on the balcony to warn them to flee into Egypt, and the murderous, happily thwarted Herod is carried out feet-first down the aisle. Whatever your faith, or lack of it, it’s a moving narrative. It also provides a refreshing antidote to the rampant glitz of most seasonal theatre and reminds one of our drama’s origins in religious ritual.
• Until 21 December at Bramley, Surrey. Box office: 01793 418299.
