PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

OVERALL DIRECTORIAL INTERPRETATION AND DRAMATIC COMMENTARY
Note on the Rosary
There are many references to the Rosary in Losers. The following
explanatory notes are given to enable you to appreciate the significance
this ritual has in the context of the play.
The Rosary is a form of religious meditation in which a sequence of
prayers is recited using a string of beads or a knotted cord, each bead or
knot representing one prayer in the sequence. The sequence of one Our
Father, ten Hail Marys and one Glory be to the Father constitutes a
decade of the Rosary repeated fifteen times in the full version or five
times in the shorter version. Each decade is associated with a particular
‘Mystery’ or meditation on an aspect of the life of Christ or the Virgin
Mary. The prayer sequence dates from the fifteenth century. The fifteen
mysteries are:
Five Joyful Mysteries
- the Annunciation
- the Visitation
- the Nativity
- the Presentation
- finding the child Jesus in the Temple
Five Sorrowful Mysteries
- the Agony in the Garden
- the Scourging at the Pillar
- the Crown of Thorns
- the Carrying of the Cross
- the Crucifixion
Five Glorious Mysteries
- the Resurrection
- the Ascension
- Pentecost
- the Assumption
- the Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven
DRAMA 43