Midsummer Revels 2003

On the evening of June 20th, Midsummer Revels presented a free outdoor performance on the waterfront beside The Children's Museum, Boston, celebrating the arrival of summer with an audience of 3000 to 4000 adults and children.

The event began with street performers and morris dancing followed by a grand procession: a sun chariot drawn by two oxen was led by the Boston Gaelic Fire Brigade Pipes and Drums, Pinewoods Morris Men, Mulberry Morris, Orion Longsword, the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss from England, and a variety of masked children and adults.

Then came a 90-minute Revels production with a cast of more than 80 performers--the Revels chorus of adults and children, The Branches Pan Groove Steel Orchestra, Revels favorites David Coffin and Janice Allen, and some of the best dancers and instrumentalists in New England.

Highlights of the performance included a traditional Chinese lion dance by the Boston Chinese Freemason Athletic Club and a traditional mummers play of death and resurrection drawn liberally from traditional English and Appalachian mummers plays with embellishment by Patrick Swanson.

The Revels cast danced an Appalachian running set to music by the Revels band and the Revels children sang Calypso tunes from Trinidad with the steel orchestra. Janice Allen sang "Amazing Grace" to the accompaniment of the highland pipes, and from time to time the entire audience joined the chorus in singing.

Revels would like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support of this production.

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