A full-blown production of the Nativity takes place every year in the Surrey Hills. Rupert Uloth witnessed last year’s delightful telling of the Christmas story.
THERE were titters as the lamb began to bleat—it was drowning out Joseph’s pleas for a place at the inn. The diminutive bundle of ovine wool continued its insistent interventions for most of the evening. If the organisers had adhered to the thespian maxim of never work with animals or children, the annual Wintershall performance of the Nativity would be a much duller affair.
The youngest of the 100-strong cast, playing baby Jesus, is necessarily barely a few months old and, as well as multiple sheep, there are donkeys and cows and the three wise men arrive on horseback.
The Wintershall Nativity, which was started in 1989 by estate owner Peter Hutley with a few family and friends using a torch to act as the star, has evolved into a professional affair (there is now proper stage lighting and more than 5,500 people come to watch 10 performances) while retaining its homespun atmosphere.
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