Let these folks take you back to Christmas 1580

Let these folks take you back to Christmas 1580

By MARIANNE DANKS RUDN1CKI

NEWS ARTS WRITER

NOV 30 1986

It's December in the year 1580. Elizabeth I is well into her reign as Queen of England and Shakespeare is a teenager in Stratford. Tensions with Spain are high, although there are eight more years until the fate of the Spanish Armada will be sealed.

Elizabethans everywhere are celebrating the season. Here in the shire of Cynnabar (Ann Arbor), revelers will gathering this Friday and Saturday night in the castle (the Michigan Union Ballroom) of Robert Markham, Duke of Kirkleigh.

This Elizabethan Wassail, a kind of 16th century dinner theater, will include feasting, entertainment and as authentic a recreation of the holiday feasts of old as the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is producing the event, can make it.

It's really a theatrical production, says SCA chapter “senechal” (president) David Hoornstra who, as the Duke of Kirkleigh, is the host of the event. “SCA exists to re-create,” he says, "and others share the enjoyment we get when we put it on. There is no public to perform for. We are inviting people into the world we are in.”

And are they ever in it.

Hoornstra estimates that each of the approximately 50 active members of the organization spend an average of 17 hours per week in the learning and reproducing of things medieval, and that, he adds, was before the Wassail preparations began.

The group holds workshops on a variety of topics from “how to be medieval” (the chapter is also involved in the Ann Arbor Medieval Festival each August) to “how to be in persona” (each member creates his or her own character that may have lived between 500 and 1600) to instruction in court dancing and sword fighting. There are also clothing workshops that cover everything from the selection of 16th century materials at 20th century fabric stores to actual construction itself.

At the mere mention of Elizabethan garb, the Duke can barely contain his admiration. “This is clothing," he says, “not costumes. They are meant to be worn all day every day." And they are as magnificent close up as they are from afar, he maintains, abounding in velvets, laces, blackwork embroidery and “miles of gold trim and edging."

Costumes such as those worn in typical theatrical productions, he says, are designed with quick changes in mind. Not so with these; in fact, with modern-day zippers replaced by hand-tied laces, everyone needs a helping hand just to get in and out of these outfits.

Included in the entertainment are appearances by the Ann Arbor Morris and Sword Dance Team, Our Lady's Madrigal Singers and a juggler; a performance of a mimed ballad with a story specially written for the occasion; court dancing by the lords and ladles, and the highlight of the evening, the knighting of the Duke's nephew, Richard.

To get everyone in the mood, the Elizabethans will join the guests at table to converse about the current events, gossip and rumors of the day in language sprinkled with just enough “prithees," "mayhaps” and “my lord would you pleases" to give it flavor. 

Guests are also encouraged to eat, as is the custom, with knife and fingers, although spoons and forks will be available for those who want them. The host would never have hospitality suffer even at the risk of bucking tradition. Where it concerns the comfort of hist guests, says the Duke, "Courtesy is first, authenticity second."

The Society for Creative Anachronism presents an Elizabethan Wassail, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Michigan Union Ballroom, 530 S. State St. Doors open at 7 p.m. Ticket are $25 per person, with group discounts available. Call 763-TKTS to order.

Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism in a scene you may well see at their Elizabethan Wassail Friday and Saturday.