Olympia Little Theatre tackles Chaucer’s bawdy humor in staged reading

Read any Chaucer lately?

It’s a fair guess that very few of you have — unless perhaps you’re a college student focusing on literature.

Though he’s widely considered the finest poet of the Middle Ages and even the father of English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer gets not even a tiny fraction of the attention enjoyed by fellow pioneering poet William Shakespeare.

John Pratt of Olympia is doing his part to change that with his play “A Lollard in the Wind,” on stage this weekend at Olympia Little Theatre.

In the play, presented as a staged reading, Chaucer gets three visitors. He regales each with stories from his “Canterbury Tales,” known for its diverse characters and bawdy humor — and for its challenging Middle English language.

“It’s a really interesting way of introducing or reintroducing people to ‘The Canterbury Tales,’ especially because it updates the language,” said Kendra Malm, the theater’s artistic manager. “They actually can be really funny. Chaucer had a wicked sense of humor.”

Pratt, who frequently appears onstage at the theater, is a retired professor who taught at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri, and later at Centralia College.

The plot revolves around Chaucer’s religion, imagining the poet as a Lollard, a member of a religious movement that predated the Reformation. His first two visitors warn him that the beliefs might put him in danger, and the third comes to arrest him.

Pratt didn’t merely create a frame story, he translated the tales that he incorporated into the show.

“I have put the lines into rhymed couplets, because that’s what Chaucer did, but it’s in modern English,” he said.

Pratt has long admired Chaucer’s work. For years, he taught a class devoted to the 14th century poet.

The idea for the play came to him in 2010, when he toured the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.

“A young guy gave us a nice tour, and at the very end, he celebrated Shakespeare’s successes at the expense of Chaucer,” Pratt said. “He said, more or less, Shakespeare is alive and well, Chaucer is dead. That got me thinking.”

The result — after four years of work and 15 drafts — is “Lollard,” Pratt’s first major play. He’s directing the reading and hopes to see future productions. He’s at work on a second play about Chaucer.

If he’s gone to greater lengths than most, Pratt is not alone in his appreciation for Chaucer.

“He’s absolutely a key source for Shakespeare plays and characters, Royal Shakespeare Company director Rebecca Gatward told The Washington Post in 2006. “If you’re interested in Shakespeare, you’ll be fascinated by Chaucer, too.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Olympia Little Theatre tackles Chaucer’s bawdy humor in staged reading."