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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780393315608
ISBN number: 0393315606
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 206
Printing Date: 1996-09
Publishing house: W. W. Norton & Company
Sale Popularity Level: 356574
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Product Description:
Breaking the tradition of only performing religious plays, a small England acting troupe in the fourteenth century attempts to reenact the recent murder of a young boy in town, a crime for which a deaf-mute girl has been arrested. Reprint. PW. NYT.
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Rated by buyers 
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Somewhere in England, 14th century. Nicholas, a monk on the lam, hooks up with a theatrical road company that's barely making the rent performing its repertoire of old chestnuts. (Small wonder, when one of the actors is a corpse. Their plays aren't the only things that stink) Dismayed by paltry box office receipts, Martin, the company's star and executive producer, fears he'll be driven out of show business by the big-budget horse & wagon tours that are dazzling audiences with realistic beheadings, miraculous transfigurations, plunging chandeliers, and other feats of divine light and magic.
Martin decides it's time for a last-ditch effort (no, this is not a reference to the late Brendan's interment). Aided by his fellow troupers: a dog-loving oldster, a discreet man-boy duo, a cunning strumpet, and a rum-soaked, nine-fingered senior thespian with a penchant for chewing up what little scenery there is to munch on, Martin drafts a brilliant business plan that results in the invention of (in order): investigative reporting, tabloid journalism, experimental theater, American sign language, and interactive infotainment.
Hit the road with this merry band of half-baked hams as they strike an
inadvertent blow for truth and justice, nearly losing their union cards
(and their heads!) in the process.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a really entertaining book, a mystery told by a master storyteller, with beautiful langauge but never a false step in the telling of a good story. Barry Unsworth offers us a mystery from the 14th century full of modern conceptions integrated into the narrative. We get a tale of child molestation and murder mixed with the social and class structure of the middle ages. Unsworth knows that modern readers will quickly follow the strucuture of the modern murder mystery and will try to get one step ahead of the narrator. He plays this to his advantage in a murder with twists and turns of plot that reveal much about the religious and social order of 14th Century England. One interesting aspect to the story was the concept of a group of actors radically changing the direction of theater by producing a play about a recent murder in a town instead of the typical morality plays. And yet this tale of a murder is in fact a morality play, since it explores the facts and beliefs about the murder in an endeavor to reconcil different accounts and details that make the murder less tidy that those in power would wish. Unsworth is extremely skillful as a wordsmith, his prose is effortless and vivid and flowing. It is so nice to read a smart page-turner. It makes you wish to read more of Unsworth's work.
Rated by buyers -
This brief novel is full of the things that make Barry Unsworth's writings so special: well crafted prose, fascinating and unusual characters, and a moral message worth pondering. The story involves a runaway priest who joins a group of actors (players) as they travel the English countryside. Upon entering a small village, the players decide to act out a murder that has just occurred in the town. The consequences of their play have far reaching effects for the village and the players alike. This is a wonderful story from a very talented writer.
Rated by buyers -
Barry Unsworth's short novel "Morality Play" (1995) is a murder-mystery set in 14th century England, but it is much more. It is a story that explores the changing boundaries between the medieval and the modern and that illuminates the power of drama to help people understand their experiences.
The narrator of the book is a 23-year old priest, Nicholas Barber, who becomes restless with his calling, runs away, has a brief affair with a married woman, and meets a group of itinerant players who are burying one of their number. Nicholas joins the troupe which heads to a small village where they decide to make a play of the fresh murder of a 12-year old boy, Thomas Wells, in the community. A young deaf and dumb woman is being held for the murder. The troupe is compelled to perform their play for the local baron, Sir Richard de Guise (in a scene that reminded me of Hamlet's performance for Claudius). They come closer to the truth of the murder than they realize.
There are vivid pictures in this book of English medieval life, of corrupt monks and priests, plagues, dusty towns, jousting, knights, the life of wandering actors and performers called joungleurs, and much else. And the mystery itself is abosrbing. Nevertheless, in my reading I found these features of the book secondary.
I found "Morality Play" most intriguing in the character development of Nicholas and in the attendant picture of a rising modernity. Nicholas is dissatisfied in his budding life as a cleric and ultimately decides that the life of a clergyman is not for him. "The impulse to run away had not been folly but the wisdom of the heart," (p. 206) he concludes. There is a turn to secularization in Nicholas's story, and to finding and following one's own star in life.
Many other features of the novel illustrate the move to and nature of the modern temprament. The players initially object to performing a play based upon the murder of young Thomas Wells in part because the story is not biblically-based and the meaning of it in the divine plan is not revealed (unlike, say, the Fall, or the story of Cain and Abel.) But as a member of the troupe observes, "Men can give meanings to things. That is no sin because our meanings are only for the time, they can be changed." (pp.74-75)
The troupe decides to perform its story of Thomas Wells to make money, a distinctively modern motivation. The members of the troupe investigate the circumstances surrounding the murder, and their play suggests how art and science are means of approaching the truth. Ultimately the murder is solved by an investigator sent by the King, and the story has something to say about the relationship between a rising central government and medieval feudalism. Finally, a young woman of easy virtue, Margaret, has been accompaning the troupe as the mistress of one of the players. She also does a great deal of value for the troupe and contributes towards preparation of the play about Thomas Wells. Yet, the troupe does not consider her as one of their number due to her gender. She becomes highly angry with this and leaves the players to make her way on her own.
Thus, I think this book has a great deal to say about the growth of secularism and the rise of views of personal growth and personal identity, naturalism in art, strong civil government, gender issues, and other matters that move the story forward from the medieval time in which it is set. The "Play of Thomas Wells" is itself a drama that tells a story of our modern world and of the factors which have led to its development.
Robin Friedman
Rated by buyers -
I wasn't sure about this book in the beginning, but I love historical mysteries, so I tried it out. The narrator, Nicholas Barber, is a former priest who walked away from his place and joined a group of travelling players--remarkable for a time when you were born to a social station and stayed there all your life. That is, in fact, a recurring theme--being trapped in a role, escaping from it, choosing the part you play in your own life.
The mystery, which centers around the murder of a young boy, is interesting--true mystery lovers will probably figure out the ending long before the narrator does. But the surrounding story of Nicholas's development as a person and of the accused goat girl was interesting enough to keep me reading. Overall, it was a satisfying book.
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