The Black Lake (Festival Edition) - II. Village (Live at Hereford Cathedral, Hereford, 7/27/2025)

Scene 1 – Village

Male Narrator -

Boy

(Nar M): I’ll go and ask Huw’s Mam if he can come out to play.

Can Huw come out to play?

Huw’s Mam

(Nar F): No, he can’t.

He’s in bed and that’s where you should be, you little monkey.

What were you two doing yesterday - making mischief, driving people out of their minds?

Boy

(Nar M): What people out of their minds?

We’re not driving them out of their minds - it’s them that’s going out of their minds themselves.

(Bright organ introduction to Ascension Day hymn)

Chorus: Daeth Angylion llon ger llaw,

Haleliwia! Seinient trwy’r uchelder draw,

Haleliwia!

Translation:

Joyous angels came nearby,

Hallelujah!

Sounding the far heavenly heights,

Hallelujah!

Huw

(Nar F): Tell me Huw, Why do people go to church on Ascension Day?

Boy

(Nar M): Well, because Jesus Christ went up to Heaven like a balloon of course, after he rose from the dead.

(Orchestral transition)

Boy

(Nar M): Can Moi come out to play,

Just to the Sheep Field to get pignuts?

Moi’s Mam

(Nar F): Don’t you be late now, you little monkey

Boy

(Nar M): Come on, lads, or it’ll be getting dark.

(Mysterious music)

Huw

(Nar F): Look, There’s a moon.

Boy

(Nar M): There’s Little Owen the Coal’s Mam.

Em’s Mam

(Nar F): Come and see, cyw bach, my little chick, before they put a lid on him.

Boy

(Nar M): It’s Em, Little Owen the Coal’s big brother, who used to wear women’s clothes, home

from the Asylum, from Denbigh – in his coffin…

Moi

(Nar F): Come on, lads or we’ll never get any pignuts

Boy

(Nar M): So we went very quietly to where the pignuts were.

And what did we see in front of us – Grace Ellen Shoe Shop and Frank Bee Hive lying down by a tree stump. Why is Frank lying on top of Grace Ellen, and nearly choking her?

Huw

(Nar F): I don’t know.

Boy

(Nar M): Me neither.

Moi

(Nar F): They must have been playing, as people do after they get married…

Boy

(Nar M): But Grace Ellen and Frank Bee Hive aren’t married.

Will you come out to play tomorrow, Huw?

Huw

(Nar F): Yes, if Mam will let me.

Boy

(Nar M): Alright. Good night, now.

(Orchestral transition)