The Knight of the Burning Pestle

Ambien Mitchell, Max Waszak and Ryan Simpson in The Knight of the Burning Pestle

Allegedly Beaumont & Fletcher wrote this lewd little comedy about the growing privileges of the middle class and the theatre troupe being forced to cater to tastes somewhat behind the times. Essentially it’s a high adventure tale shoved into a romantic sitcom. It is also full of music, mostly kyped from the popular music of the time, some of which survives.  The research required to track down the popular music that the show references was deep and lengthy, but in Liz Nelson I had a fabulous assistant who was a big help. The character Merrythought has the majority of songs in the play, and sometimes these moments are no more than one or two lines taken from a much longer work. Aside from his little pop culture references there are also a few longer songs, and a madrigal of sorts at the end. Working with pianist Simon Kiel, we crafted versions of the songs of the play that the actors could sing, with light accompaniment and a cappella.