Following on from my (with hindsight) slightly sacriligeous post of the other day concerning my desire to play Mary in a Nativity play, comes another seaonal musing.
During todays's carol concert at work we sang 'Whilst Shepherds Watch'. We even sang the correct words (which we didn't do for 'O Come All Ye Faithful' as an editorial error had mixed up the words to some of the verses). The words to 'Shepherds' (the correct ones) include the line 'Fear not, said he ...', where 'he' is the Angel of the Lord. That simple little word reminds us that the Angel of the Lord is a bloke.
So how come he's always played by a girl in Nativity plays? I'd never thought about it before, but I guess I've become more susceptible to gender-related musings of late. It's up there with Mary in terms of great roles to have; you get some lines, you get to wear a frock (sorry, 'robe') and, unlike Mary, you get to wear lots of sparkly bits. It has something to be said for it. And it's a male role. Oh, the missed opportunities.
You can see that if I had my way the traditional Nativity play would turn into some kind of bizarre pantomime. Which is, of course, what my daughter almost managed to do to hers at the end. But that's a story I'll not relate here. Or, probably, anywhere else. Let's just say it involved a glove-puppet.
1 comment:
The other night I was mentally somewhere else as a carol concert reached "We three Kings". I got the first line out ok, but then the inevitable happended as I sang on "...one in a taxi, one in a car..." - don't think anyone heard me - opps!
Post a Comment