Steventon Mummers
Mummers Plays have been produced for centuries and are, or were, believed to bring good luck to performers and audience. Meant as a recreation of the struggle between good and evil the plays were traditionally passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. .
In December 1983 Steventon News gave the following account supplied by Tony Sloggett ‘The characters being Molly, who was always played by a man, King George, a French officer called Beau Slasher, a doctor, Jack Vinny a jester, Happy Jack, pauper and Old Beelzebub dressed up as Father Christmas… the Steventon mummers replace King George by an “Africky King”.
The Steventon mummers performed, in their homemade costumes, after the traditional Christmas church service on Boxing Day and the players performed at village pubs etc. This custom seems to have ended by the beginning of the 20th century, and an appeal for ‘writings’ of the old play in the Parish Magazine in 1902 implies the original play had been forgotten. In recent years the mumming tradition has been revived with a team from the Abingdon Morris men visiting pubs in the village to perform the ‘Sunningwell play’ that was first written down in 1948.
Steventon Mummers performing at the North Star
