Exploring: N-Town, Play 3 (Cain and Abel)

Episode 148,   Apr 25, 2020, 10:17 AM

An exploratory read through of N-Town's Cain and Abel play.

Exploring: The N-Town Play, a slow burn look at a medieval Mystery (sort of) cycle. The N-Town Play comes to us as a single manuscript, but it's a compilation of various different sources - including elements from what looks like a cycle and various other large scale productions focusing on episodes from the Bible.
The journey continues with Cain and Abel - and our first murder. Don't worry Cain fans, he'll be back!
There are other plays featuring Cain and Abel - we've done both an exploring session and a full cast audio adaptation on the podcast, so you can compare and contrast.
Chester Full Cast: https://audioboom.com/posts/7019408-cain-and-abel-chester-mystery-cycle
And Exploring Chester in two parts: Part 1 https://audioboom.com/posts/2456490-chester-plays-2-3-cain-and-abel and Part 2 - https://audioboom.com/posts/2456533-chester-plays-2-4-cain-and-abel
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are various online and purchasable versions available - here's a good one, but is in the original middle English and might put you off - others should be hunted for to taste.
A play text: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-play-3-cain-and-abel
The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare Or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at admin@beyondshakespeare.org, follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org