Antrobus Souling Play
Antrobus, Cheshire
31 October and other nights over next two weeks

The Antrobus Souling Play is performed at the Wheatsheaf in Antrobus, and in various other pubs, from Halloween onwards over the following two weeks. The company perform a souling, or mumming play, to which they have added some
touches of their own, including the Wild Horse and his Driver. The performers all dress up for their parts, which include King George, the Black Prince, the Quack Doctor, Mary, Beelzebub and Derry Doubt. The Wild Horse has a fearsome aspect
and snapping jaws, and many lines about him are recited to attract sympathy for his needy condition.

In the Middle Ages, prayers were said for souls suffering in purgatory on All Saints' and All Souls' Day at the beginning of November, and though the practice was swept aside at the Reformation, the poor still had a tradition of begging for soulcakes in payment for prayers. Children kept up that custom in Shropshire and Cheshire singing 'Soul, soul, for a souling cake'. Souling plays, a variant of Christmas mumming plays, survived in Cheshire until after the Second World War. The Antrobus Souling Play is now the only one, and this version is one that was revived in the 1920s after it had lapsed for a brief time.