Making Merrie is a new performance project by artist and basketmaker Lewis Prosser, exploring the material culture of folk theatre. Inspired by mummers' plays and masked traditions along the Wales/England border, Making Merrie combines craft, performance, and language to reflect on cultural heritage and exchange.
Mummers' plays are traditional folk performances with roots over 500 years old, often tied to Christmas and New Year. Full of humour and spontaneous revelry, these plays were staged in streets, homes, or pubs by amateur troupes, telling simple stories of combat, death, and miraculous revival. Unlike the religious Mystery Plays, mummers' plays are secular, carnivalesque, and performed for community fun.
The project features large-scale wicker costumes, handcrafted using regional willow basketry techniques, highlighting basketry as an essential human skill we're at risk of forgetting—a skill that, if lost, means losing part of what it is to be human.
Scripts blend Welsh and English in a garbled nonsense dialect, combined with improvised movement and carnival procession. Unrehearsed and set within communities, the performances invite spontaneity, joy, and humour.
Originally from Bristol and now based in Cardiff (via Glasgow), Prosser uses this work to reflect on his journey across the UK, observing how craft and performance connect people with the landscape. Through Making Merrie, he treats linguistic and geographic borders as spaces for dynamic cultural exchange, fostering a deeper sense of identity.
Performance Schedule:
21st Dec [winter solstice] - Hafon Yr Afon / Oriel Davies 3pm
11th Jan 25 - Mission Gallery Swansea 4pm
12th Jan - Chapter Arts Centre - 4pm
7th Feb - 31st March [Exhibition] - Galeri Caernarfon
Performers:
Beth Greenhalgh, Bethan Cooper, Clare Parry-Jones, Fay Burnett, Jo Munton, Johnny Jones, Katrina Cobain, Tim Martin-Jones
Composer:
‘Prynhawn Da!’ composed for Making Merrie by Max Syed Tollan
Live Musicians:
Darren Edens, David Grubb, The South Wales Improvisors [Jon Ruddick, Martin Chitty]
Funded by:
Arts Council of Wales, Oriel Davies, Chapter Arts, Oriel Mission, and Galeri Caernarfon
With special thanks to
Sarian & Nick Thomas-Jones, Megan Jones, Sarah McClintock, William Joys, Jane Fletcher, Clare Rivera, The Basketmakers Association, Musgrove Willows, and everyone that helped bring this project to life.
