Music from the Plays

The Mysteries, 1988-89 at Stantonbury

The Mysteries were performed in the round with the cast mingling with the audience when possible.The opening was a lively Maypole Dance by the Company.

  • Sun Hall, maypole dance – Opening music played by The Cock & Bull Band led by John- Pierre Rasle.
    Cock & Bull Band: Pete Lockwood (keyboard, electric & acoustic percussion); Paul Martin (mandolin cello, Appalachian dulcimer); Jean-Pierre (French & English bagpipes).
  • La Conterle (comp. Jean-Pierre Rasle). Background for Joseph & Mary travelling to Bethlehem
  • Lay me Low (trad.) adapted by John Tams, sung by Maggie Holland and Brad Bradstock. Sung as the audience gathered round Mary for the birth of Jesus, all holding small electric torches on a darkened stage.

A Man for All Seasons by Richard Bolt, 1993 at Christ the Cornerstone Church, Milton Keynes

  • Opening music composed by Richard Holroyd
The tolling of birds, a bell, monks singing, and a royal fanfare signal the coming drama of Thomas More ,in his battle to oppose  Henry V111’s divorce.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller,  1994 at Christ the Cornerstone Church, Milton Keynes

  • Opening sounds of a powerful wind, and a tree being felled, into music composed by Brad Bradstock.
    The fall of the tree symbolised the destruction of the pioneer community in Salem, under the hammer blows of religious prejudice and hysteria.