The lights are dim, feet are pounding on the floor and a faint smell of horses is in theair, as a crowd of hundreds seated in an arena waits to see five knights meet their death on the sands of a jousting pit.
The scene is ripped from 11th-century Europe ? except the crowd is school-age children with paper crowns on their heads, and they?re guzzling Pepsi.
At the Friday afternoon matinee of the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament in Arundel Mills Mall, a staff of about 200 prepared for one of the approximately nine scripted shows they perform each week.
Minutes before the show, 38-year-old Randy Bernhardt, who plays the king, adjusted his mic and uniform, comprising a bejeweled crown, black-and-gold mesh pinafore and long overcoat.
Though Bernhardt has been performing with the Medieval Times company for almost 16 years, he is still anxious before shows.
“If we didn?t get a little nervous, we?d be doing something wrong,” he said.
The Medieval Times staff includes actors, servers, a lighting crew, ticket-takers and horse managers. A fleet of about 20 horses ? some Andalusian stallions ? have stables at the mall and a farm in Crownsville.
The crew performs the same show ? a joust to the death by six different knights ? with only slight variations Wednesday through Sunday, often twice a day. It?s a highly choreographed, histrionic routine that takes a lot of preparation and rehearsal, employees said.
James Duga, 27, who plays a knight, said he trains just as hard as any athlete, practicing every day for hours.
Since opening in August 2003, the Arundel Mills Mall dinner theater ? one of only eight Medieval Times in the country ? has brought in more than 650,000 guests, marketing manager Rae Ann Cinquanto said.
“They have been doing gangbusters over there,” said Aaron Greenfield, the president of the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp.
Though the venue has a lot of moderntouches, like state-of-the-art lights and sounds, some Medieval traditions are evident.
The knights, for instance, wear costumes resembling chain metal armor, a lighter form of armor which knights wore. Customers don?t use silverware because it wasn?t invented in 11th-century Europe.
And staff members keep in character, using lingo like “my lord” and “my lady” and referring to the restaurant as the “castle.”
All in a day?s work for the staff, Bernhardt said.
“It?s not a normal job,” he said. “Everybody has run away and joined the circus.”
