The days are darkening and the mood is somber, but never fear, December is here and we are ready to revel! Winter solstice descends on us in the darkest month, but in significant ways December can be the brightest month of all. There is nothing like the shortest day to bring out the light and magic and yes, hope. December’s contrary magic will be reflected in the old story of the Fool and the King, as California Revels meets us in a darkened theater to turn the world upside down. With the old tales, songs, foolery, splendid costumery, and the occasional transcendent moment, they will beguile our melancholy with laughter and mystery, poetry and pranks. The Feast of Fools will tell of how kings become fools, and fools become kings, if only for a little while.
The King and the Fool is an old story, appearing often in medieval manuscripts, like the one at the top of this page, the fool ascendant and the king on his knees. What does it all mean? Nothing is clear, but neither can it be when all is buttoned down. The fool is iconic to us with his motley, his donkey ears, his pointed hat, his bells. He brandishes a baton to mimick the staff of the king, but it is an only mock weapon, often with a face like his own to serve as a foil for outrageous dialogue. His costume identifies his role, and his behavior is to puncture pomposity, to slide between worlds and ridicule everyone. It is a wise king who keeps a fool in his court, for no one else dares to tell him the truth. The Bard says, in As You Like It, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
This year California Revels returns to their new home at the Douglass Morrison Theater in Hayward, a cozy space that is just right. Performances are December 12-14 and 19-21, with the matinee on the winter solstice already sold out, so if you are thinking of going, get your tickets soon!
There will be a dragon or three, plenty of dancing and devilry, singalongs (but only if you like) and laughter, and perhaps a tear. Or three.
Lest you think this will all be fun, Death will make an appearance, because we are in a dark time! And we must bring back the light, so we dance with death. Even more, we are promised a Danse Macabre, this time around in a haunting processional known as the Ad Mortem Festinamus, which you can listen to here.
The figure of Death is fearsome, and the figure of the king is all robes and nobility. Until, that is, all is upended.
In the end we will all raise our voices in a shared celebration to bring the light out of the chaos.
As many of you know, I am a longtime Reveler, which has inspired me to create much of my art, and in later days to have written often in this space about what Revels means to me. Sometimes I am at pains to describe why I am so affected by this seemingly simple theater experience, especially in these days when so many people must have an opinion about so many of the big issues that surround us.
These words rang a bell for me, at the end of a long and labyrinthian exposition about those pesky issues.
When people ask me where I stand, I say these days that it’s with an older tradition … which takes its stand not according to ideological positioning, but according to actual positioning: on Earth, under the sky, surrounded by people who know where the sun rises in the morning, where they come from and who they are. – Paul Kingsnorth
You can go and read the whole article, if you like, here. I would rather cajole my melancholy with the warmth of stories and song. That means, for this hermit, coming out of my solitary workspace and gathering the family to participate. This year we will be three generations deep, but many more will attend us, ancestors new and old, and the oldest ancestors of all, the earth and sky and stars. For I feel all of them in this darkest time, as I grow closer to joining them. But not yet! Not yet!
Give me hijinks! Foolery! Dancing! Fun! Coming right up, says Revels. Let the silliness commence!
The photos above of performances in front of the celestial illumination (taken from the Tres Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry, 1400s) come from the 2012 California Revels. You can find summaries of many of the past shows at this link, and many of them are linked to reviews and rhapsodies I wrote about being part of the fun.
