Talami Orsogna and York Mystery Plays

Similar to the York Mystery Plays, the Talami are created and presented by a group of women and men with a desire to keep alive the old traditions of Easter processions which are very particular in Italy. The award winning Talami are now traditionally held on Easter Monday in honour of ‘Our Lady of the Refuge’ and are tableaux rather than ‘plays’. Originally they were held on Easter Tuesday but to keep up with a changing community they were moved to the Monday. Very like the four yearly Mystery Plays, while the biblical stories represented themselves are timeless, the themes change to reflect the experiences of local people and with the passing of time they have changed from poor simple structures to more detailed and vivid scenes. As with the Waggon plays, several stories are told to create a theme with the episodes moving through the streets on waggons. This event involves the whole community and the structure of the organisation and performance style bears many similarities with the waggon plays.

The Talami represent one of the most interesting and popular religious manifestations in Italy today and the special recognition received on the 28th July 2011 by the Minister of Culture in which the ‘ Talami of Orsogna ‘were declared a Patrimony Of Italy for Traditions was gratifying for both the association and the town of Orsogna itself.

The word “ Talami “ implies a stage on which religious plays were performed during the Medieval period.

The Talami of Orsogna are in honour of ‘Our Lady of the Refuge’ named after the church where there was a ‘fresco’ of a dark skinned Madonna, this fresco was thought to have been painted in the first half of the 15^th Century. The painting was venerated because it was considered prodigious.

The local population believed that every year at dawn of Easter Tuesday the Madonna’s face became fair skinned and that her eyes moved.

To be able to see this miracle the devoted congregation would gather in the church for a night of prayer and vigil. Sadly, the church of ‘Our lady of the Refuge’ was destroyed in 1944, during the last bombings of World War II.

Today there are 7 tableaux that move from the 7 focal parts of the town and which all meet in the town square.

The 7^th Talamo is the one that most represents the original Talami. It is placed where the church once stood and is then carried to the main square by the Orsogna Alpini Regiment. The remaining Talami are moved to the town square by tractors.

Knowing that Sacred Representations were widespread in Medieval Europe, we asked ourselves if and where they were still carried out or if Orsogna was the only place to keep this tradition alive. We fervently hoped that this was not the case ! After much research we came across a ‘Nativity’ scene very similar to ours and this led us to the York Mystery Plays.

With much courage we made our first contact with Roger Lee!

This cultural exchange began in 2009 when the The Associazione Culturale contacted York Festival Trust looking to promote their region through cultural and artistic exchange. This has led to yearly exchange visits including in 2011, members of York Guilds taking part in the Italian performances and then in 2012 the Company of Butchers and St Chads took the Cruxifixion waggon to perform in the summer version of the Talami in Orsogna, Italy.

Although, with great effort, the Association has been able to take the Talami outside of Abruzzo but this is the first time these Italian tableaux have been seen outside Italy!

Thanks to the determination of those who believed in this project, both in York and in Orsogna, we are able to celebrate our presence in York to-day and sincerely hope that this friendship will continue to flourish over the years to come.