The Munro Nativity

Mrs Costello was the respected, revered, but feared teacher at Munro School for 27 years. Aside from her over used strap, she is mostly remembered for her obsessively over-rehearsed Nativity Plays at the annual Munro Hall Christmas Tree. 'Throw your voice so it carries through the vent at the back of the hall', she would bellow at Margaret Beachey (nee Luxford), as she delivered her Angel Gabriel monologue. 'Pull your socks up, Marvin Dunsmuir, or I'll find another King? ... 'But they are pulled up Mrs Costello', he bravely responded pointing to his knee highs.

On the night of the show, the cast would be assembled in the kitchen behind the stage awaiting their entrance, as the milk coffee bubbled in the copper over the fire. There were no steps up onto the high stage, so they would have to clamber up, and commando roll into the scene. Despite his pleas for a promotion to King, David Luxford was forced to play the Shepherd for 5 consecutive years. Like his sister Margaret, he still knows his lines. Erik Christiansen, a tall lad & natural King, not only doesn't remember his lines as Balthazar, he never knew them at all. He managed to hoodwink his teacher, by holding his script in a royal decree scroll.

Thanks to the incredible work by my local Hall Stories guide, Jenny Dunsmuir & the production team from The Wedge Theatre in Sale, over 120 people crammed into the Munro Mechanics Hall to witness the very people who played in the Nativity, recreate it on stage for the Hall Stories finale. David was fatalistic about having to reprise the Shepherd role, Margaret's angelic voice very much carried through the vent at back of the hall & Erik, without his royal scroll, delivered excuses in place of his lines.

This night was all that I'd hoped Hall Stories would be. People from all generations reconnecting. Some hadn't stepped foot in the place for 40 or 50 years, while others still hold the community together as the current vibrant hall committee. After the show, as the reunion continued outside around the braziers, I imagined that the spirit of previous generations of the Luxfords, Bates, Swans, Christiansens, Dekkers & Delaneys would be foxtrotting in the smoke of the fires, knowing their hall is still the glue of Munro … But I'm not a hopeless romantic, I know Mrs Costello would have hated the under rehearsed finale.

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