Despite a few nervous moments along the way, my overwhelming memories are of how fun rehearsals were and I’m already missing working with everyone. Working with directors from RADA and professional musicians, and performing in such magnificent surroundings was a unique experience. We were all really proud of the final result, and it was definitely worth the hard work put in by everyone.”
Abby Stevenson (MA Medieval History) who starred as the Antichrist
Please note: this event has passed
On 1 April 2011, the Department of History presented its annual Medieval Latin play. The play was the Ludus de Antichristo (Play of the Antichrist), performed in the original Latin in the King's Chapel, Strand Campus. This was the sixth such event, and the first to be performed with an original score (composed by Alessia Mankovskaya, performed by members of King’s College Choir) and English surtitles. The performance was widely publicised both within the College, and to historians and classicists throughout the UK, and the cast (pictured, below) performed to a full house.
The Ludus de Antichristo was written in Germany in the late twelfth century, in rhyming Latin verse. It narrates the coming of Antichrist, a diabolical figure who attempts to convince the world that he is Christ returned. In the play, the Kings of Europe and Asia, the Church and the Jews all submit to Antichrist, and his victory seems final, till he is destroyed at the last moment by God’s power. It is a simple but powerful dramatisation of a medieval conception of the end of history and the beginning of the final struggle between good and evil.
The bulk of the cast and crew were students from the History Department’s MA in Medieval History. But there was further participation from students in the Departments of French, Music, English and Classics, and from RADA, Queen Mary’s, and the Courtauld Institute. All those involved commented on their high level of enthusiasm and commitment, and on the positive feedback they had received.
The play was directed by Jose Manuel Gandia, a student on RADA’s MA in Text and Performance, continuing a long-term link between this programme and the Latin play. The staging was carefully choreographed to match the play’s symmetry and symbolism, and made full use of the Chapel space. The performance began in the foyer beneath the Chapel, and the audience were led in procession, by the cast and choir, to their seats in the Chapel’s aisles. Performers were stationed throughout the chapel, and the action culminated with the triumph and defeat of Antichrist before the altar
I was immediately inspired by the Chapel's architecture and its surroundings, and the possibility of incorporating them into the performance. It has given me the opportunity to test possibilities of collaboration between drama, music and movement, fields in which I am particularly interested as a director”.
Jose Manuel Gandia
The Latin play is an optional activity for students on the History Department’s Latin for Graduates postgraduate module.
It was delightful to watch the growing commitment of my students’ throughout the year, and to see a final product that combined dramatic excitement with confident use of the Latin language. Latin is usually called a dead language, and few Latin teachers can have the pleasure of seeing it come to life so vividly. I’m also particularly pleased that the play has been a collaborative effort between my students and people from a wide range of other departments and institutions, without whose professionalism and dedication we could not have created such a memorable evening. The Latin Play is a unique feature of the College’s Medieval History MA, and I believe it will grow in strength and popularity in years to come.'
Dr Daniel Hadas
Photos
Photos of the rehearsals and the performance have been posted on the Department of History's facebook page.
Ludus de Antichristo
In simple and elegant rhyming couplets, the Ludus de Antichristo narrates the coming to earth of the Antichrist, as predicted in the Old and New Testaments. Antichrist is welcomed as the Messiah by the Church and Synagogue, and by the Holy Roman Emperor and the kings of Europe and Asia. His ultimate aim is to submit the whole world to Satan’s power, before he is unmasked by the true prophets of God.
The text survives in only one manuscript, from the Bavarian abbey of Tegernsee. The author is unknown, but he must have been writing in the second half of the 12th century, before the death of Emperor Frederick I in 1190. The play offers nothing less than an enactment of the end of history, as pictured in the medieval religious imagination. This vision is built on a dramatic paradox: history reaches its accomplishment in the submission of all the earth to Satan’s emissary, and yet the final victory does not belong to the Evil One. The pride of newly formed nations, the messianic expectations of the emperor and his crusaders, the deluded patience of the Jews, the wickedness of a corrupt Church – all make for a world that is easy prey to Antichrist, and all will succumb to his violence or deceipt. But the faithulness of God must prove greater than the unfaithfulness of men.
Event details
The ChapelStrand Campus
Strand, London, WC2R 2LS