The White Boys (mummers)

The play is traditionally performed in public places close to Christmas, and it concerns knights fighting and killing one another before being resurrected by a doctor, after which there is a song and a dance.

[1] The first eyewitness account of a performance is from 1838, when it was said that:[2]For several nights before Christmas, it is customary for boys, dressed in white [...] to perambulate the streets [...] and solicit contribution at the various dwellingsAt this time, the White Boys were considered to be, alongside Hunt the Wren and the Fiddlers,[3] 'amongst the most popular amusements of Christmas,'[4] with their strength remaining 'untouched by the enerating hands of time and change.

'[3] Boys or young men visited houses in the local community to perform the play in the late afternoon or early evening in the lead-up to Christmas.

'[8] However, it remained entirely compelling with eye-witnesses noting that 'the excitement attached to the "White Boys” can scarcely be imagined,'[7] and 'the greatest actor in all the world could not have charmed us half so much.

[11] Money was expected but many households also offered food and drink:[8][The White Boys] are not averse to the pennies; but if solids are not to be had, they readily put up with liquids, in shape of gin, or even Jough, alias Manx beer.

The White Boys were known all over the Isle of Man, including the following: Andreas, Arbory, Ballabeg, Ballaragh, Ballaugh, Castletown, Douglas, Glen Auldyn, Glenchass, Jurby, Laxey, Lezayre, The Lhen, Maughold, Kirk Michael, Peel, Port Erin, Ramsey and Sulby.

For instance, the previously popular and successful White Boys of Ramsey ceased after December 1913 and were not able to restart due to the introduction of a £5 Street Traders licence.

[16] From the 1910s Mona Douglas and Phillip Leighton Stowell were working to collect the dance believed to have been performed at the play's conclusion.

[25] In 1975 the play was independently revived for public performance by Ross Trench-Jellicoe, Colin Jerry, Bob Carswell, David Fisher, Ian Coulson, Stewart Bennett, George Broderick, Phil Gorry and Mark Shimmin.

[29] The play continued to be performed on the streets of the Isle of Man for 31 years by a changing set of actors connected to Bock Yuan Fannee.

[1] Although all vary from one another, the dominant core of the narrative is as follows: A short introduction of the drama is followed by the entrance of the patriarch character, who introduces the hero (normally St. George).

Then there is a song, an argument about who is to pay the doctor, and a dance.As was noted in 1869, the traditional approach to the play is to vary or adapt it in performance:[4] The plot everywhere seems to be pretty nearly the same; scarcely any two sets of performers render it alike, constantly mixing up extraneous matter, often of a local nature, and frequently allusive to the passing events of the day, making the confusion of character in all the versions very great.This is evident in the varying characters involved in the historical scripts:[39] In addition to these characters, references to the play beyond the available scripts show that Beelzebub, Devil Doubt, King and Turkish Champion were also present in other versions of the play.

Although faithful to the historical sources, this new edit playfully reassigned the heroic knight as St. Maughold (a recognisably Manx character) and the antagonist as St.

[36][37][38] The relative prominence of the roles within the play also varies over time, with the key comic character being seen as the Doctor in 1845,[4] Sambo in 1909,[9] and Devil Doubt in 1928.

[4] As a folk practice, there has never been a determined uniform for the different sets of practitioners across the Isle of Man and descriptions vary across time and location.

[9] The dominant costume for most of the actors today is a white smock covered in strips of coloured fabric, with hats and often shields indicating their character.

With hostile bands confronted, To fight we are not slack, On roast beef and plum pudding We can make a stout attack.

First alluded to by Mona Douglas in 1941,[55] it was finally collected by Leighton Stowell in 1948, at which point it received its first performance in Port Erin.

[53] The song and tune associated with Daunse Noo George has an unclear origin, as Leighton Stowell offers conflicting accounts of its being both collected and composed.