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 In history it is often considered that Cornwall was ‘backwards’ culturally during the medieval period, but there is evidence that this was untrue. Firstly, the existence of the Plen an Gwary, in English, Playing Place. Today only two ‘playing places’ survive at St. Just and Perranzabuloe but it can be deduced from church records, archaeological and place-name evidence that many more amphitheatres existed across Cornwall, possibly as many as thirty, suggesting a highly developed theatrical continuum. The plen-an-gwary is a circular open-air amphitheatre that would have been used for many purposes, serving as a sports arena and meeting place for the local community. The grassed plen-an-gwary at St. Just is a scheduled ancient monument which has stood at the heart of the community for some 600 years.
Another survivor from the period of Middle Cornish is the trilogy of religious dramas making up the Cornish Ordinalia, beyond doubt the most important piece of literature of this period to survive. The name of its author is unknown but the work was almost certainly composed at Glasney College, Penryn. In St. Just’s case, the parish church was held by Glasney and it’s likely that the Plen was as well, so these plays were almost certainly performed here some 500 years ago. First written in the Cornish language, the Ordinalia consists of three plays that together tell the stories of the bible from Genesis to Revelation. Written with the intention of teaching ordinary people tales from the Bible they are also great fun – entertaining, colourful and sometimes even bawdy – in order to appeal to the local people of the time. The plays are akin to the famous Mystery Cycles of York, Chester and Wakefield, but unlike them these plays were performed by local people together, not in guilds, in the spirit of a festival. The plays were designed for open-air production on consecutive days at parish feasts, the first play, Origo Mundi, The Beginning of the World, is based upon the Old Testament; the second and third, Passio Domini and Resurrexio Domini, Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, upon the New. The plays remained unpublished until the mid 19th century since when a number of Cornish scholars, from Edwin Norris to Morton Nance have made translations with varying degrees of accuracy.
 In recent years a group of people who had worked under the leadership of Mavis Spargo to fulfil an ambition to bring the plays back to life for Cornwall today formed the Ordinalia Trust and in 2000 the Millenium Festival afforded an opportunity to take on the challenge of producing the Ordinalia plays. The scripts were commissioned from local playwright Pauline Sheppard, she has aimed to make the plays accessible to a modern audience, so the translation does not adhere to the original text . Some of the original Cornish has been woven into the text, in particular in the choral pieces.
In September 2000 the first play in the cycle – The Creation – was performed and I can recall the magic of watching this performance, taking place in a central acting area and eight smaller stages arranged around the edge of the plen. The audience were in the midst of the drama; I had never been to a performance like this, the actors both professional and local people perhaps as many as a hundred of them. In 2001 The Passion played to just over 3,000 people from all over the world. The third and final play – The Resurrection – was performed in 2002 and then this year came the opportunity to see the full cycle performed, probably for the first time since the 1600s. This performance took about three and a half hours. On the evening that I went to a performance the weather was dry but distinctly chilly, even if it had rained I would not have wanted to miss a minute of this stunning performance. Hopefully there will be other opportunities and, if you didn’t see it this time, don’t miss the Ordinalia if the opportunity comes around again.
Margaret Perry
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