The Adventures of Silence -- December 2006

Merlin prophesies that only a woman can capture him, so people are surprised when the young knight Silence compels Merlin to court. But they are even more surprised when Merlin reveals that Silence is a woman.

Dragon fights, feast music, and battles will resound through the stacks when Albertsons Library teams with the Medieval Drama Guild in The Adventures of Silence from thirteenth-century France.

The Adventures of Silence brings to life the story of Cador and Eufemie, brought together by love, and their child Silence who is born a girl and brought up as a boy because of the unjust laws of the realm.  Silence becomes a famous minstrel and then a valiant knight, facing perilous challenges in both roles.

Startlingly relevant and complex, the story of Silence tackles challenging questions of gender identity, and heredity versus environment, against a vivid background of medieval court life.

Drawing on medieval ways of thinking about entertainment, this production turns away from a formalized stage setting, turning instead to the library, a medieval center of both ideas and entertainment. The Medieval Drama Guild focuses on entertainment in community. Students in the Medieval Drama class partner with community actors and musicians, including Aage Nielsen and Jennifer Drake from the Darkwood Consort and Dr. Linda Kline Lamar from the Boise State University Department of Music, who bring power and intensity to the play through the versatile and complex music of the era. Director James Orr, drama teacher at Crossroads Middle School, brings extensive experience reshaping medieval material to make it accessible for modern audiences.

The Medieval Drama Guild was formed in 1989 to bring together the university and the community in recreating medieval entertainment for modern audiences. The groups consists of members of the community and the broader university together with students in the Medieval Drama class. Headed by Boise State medievalist Dr. Linda Marie Zaerr, the Medieval Drama Guild mingles drama and music in the exciting and often surprising theatrical productions of the Middle Ages.

This production is an innovative stage adaptation of the thirteenth-century French Roman de Silence. “There are no clear boundaries between drama and narrative,” comments Zaerr. “Medieval entertainers moved freely between music, storytelling, and acting. Until recently we haven’t always recognized scripts.”

Scholars still debate whether the work aims to empower or disempower women. Found in a unique manuscript in Nottingham, the text has only been available in English translation since the 1990’s. A paperback edition of Sarah Roche Mahdi’s translation, titled Silence, is available from Michigan State University Press, ISBN 0-87013-543-0. Here interested readers can find full treatments of a range of fascinating topics.

Free and open to the public, The Adventures of Silence will take place Saturday December 2 at 2:00 and 7:30 and Monday December 4 at 7:30 in the McCain Room on the second floor of Albertsons Library on the campus of Boise State University.  For more information, contact Linda Marie Zaerr at 426-1213.