Description
There were a number of plays and pageants produced during the Mayflower Tercentenary of 1920, some of which, like Rev. Hugh Parry’s pageant, were performed in more than one town. But Exeter had the distinction of putting on an original play by a local writer, the Congregationalist minister E.J. Hawkins. Hawkins and another local, A.G. Willis, also produced and directed the play, which was entitled The Seed and the Fruit. The title of the play referred to the central conceit that the English Pilgrims had "planted" the “seed” of representative government, liberty, and equality which eventually came to fruition in the American republic.
The play was divided into two parts. The first part was typical of “Mayflower” plays in presenting the early history of the Pilgrims and their travails before and after they arrived in New Plymouth. The second part was more unusual in depicting the later history of the United States, including the Boston Tea Party, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, and even President Wilson’s message to Congress in 1917, when America entered the Great European War. Similar to Hugh Parry's pageant, the play’s finale depicted a tableau of the League of Nations, which a great many commentators viewed as the apotheosis of liberty and the key to securing its future for the world.
The proceeds from the play were donated to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Source
Western Mercury, “Mayflower play at Exeter”, 24 November 1920.
Devon Gazette, “Tercentenary; Pilgrim Fathers; Exeter’s pageant play”, 23 November 1920.