● Medieval Drama

○ The Theatre is Dark

■ After the fall of Rome, drama as entertainment ceased to be.
■ After eight hundred years without theatre, the church began to use drama
to teach the stories of the Bible.
● Church services were taught in Latin to people who did not speak
it. They used some pantomime and words to depict biblical
passion plays such as the crucifixion of Christ.
■ There were three major forms of plays permitted by the church and
several unofficial types of drama.
● Morality plays
○ These dramas were based on the spiritual trials of the
average man.
○ They formed a bridge between the Medieval religious plays
and the secular dramas of the Renaissance.
○ The plays were allegories about the moral temptations
which face every man. Characters were symbolic.
○ The action of the drama was the battle between good and
evil to posses man’s soul.
■ Play: Everyman (late 15th century). Everyman is
visited by Death. He is told that he can take one
friend with him on his long journey. He approaches
Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Goods, Knowledge,
Discretion, Strength, Beauty, and Five Wits. All
refuse. Only Good Deeds will join him on his
journey. The moral is obvious.
■ Miracle play: described lives and the works of the
saints. They were usually performed on the saint’s
feast day. Some of the scripts were biblical, others
were not
■ The four St. Nicholas plays from the Fleury Play-
Book (13th century France) - They told of St.
Nicholas trapping the devil. These plays were
presented, in Latin, on St. Nicholas Day --
December 6th.
● Mystery Play: The plot and characters were drawn from the books
of the Bible. It was the major form of Medieval drama. The best
examples are the cycle plays of England. The York Cycle (14th
century) contained forty-eight short plays and took approximately
14 hours to perform.
○ Of the forty-eight plays, eleven deal with the Old
Testament )from Creation to the crossing of the Red Sea).
○ Thirteen cover the period from the Annunciation to Palm
Sunday.
 ■ Twenty-three cover the final week of Christ’s
earthly life and His Assumption into Heaven
■ And one describes Judgement Day.
■ The last known medieval performance of the York
Cycle was in 1569.
○ Mystery play: The Second Shepherd’s Play (mid 15th
century) from the Wakefield Cycle or The Passion Play
which dramatizes the last week of Christ’s life -- from His
triumphal entry on Palm Sunday through His Ascension
into Heaven. Probably the most famous Passion Play is
the Oberammergau (Germany) Passion Play which has
been presented every ten years since the middle of the
17th century.
● Mummers: Mummers Plays are short dramas with rhymed texts,
traditionally performed in association with certain annual festivals -
mostly at Christmas, but in certain regions on Halloween, All
Souls’ Day, New Year's, Plough Monday or Easter. Medieval
Mummers are well documented; they cavorted in masks.
○ Hero/Combat play
○ The Recruiting Sergeant play
○ The Sword Dance play
■ The most prominent is the Hero/Combat play which
starts with an introductory prologue and is followed
by challenges and a sword fight between the hero,
either Saint George, or Robin Hood and an
antagonist- often a dragon or a Turk. One of them-
not always the villain - is “slain” and a quack doctor
is brought in to perform a cure and the dead man is
miraculously revived. This is usually achieved with
a degree of comedy and may be the major scene of
the play.
○ The medieval mummer relied heavily on costumes and
makeup for his characterization
○ Costumes were often symbolic or fantastic, ranging from
rags to the most lavish of attire, all in an aim to please the
audience.
○ The productions were often gaudy and anachronistic, such
as the devil costumes using grotesque animal heads and
bodies to excite and shock the audiences.
○ Trade Guilds were medieval unions provided the money and personnel needed
to present the plays. The church provided the scripts and directorial leadership.
○ Pageant Wagons were performed on moving wagons, decorated with scenery
which rolled through the town from one plaza to another, reenacting the
performance for each new audience.
■ A pageant wagon held the mansion, the plateau, and a dressing area on
one structure. This wagon stage would then be moved from one gathering
of audience to the next, much like a float in a parade.
● Heavens: One of the most popular mansions was paradise, or
heaven. Guilds often created mechanical clouds to raise God and
the Angels.
● Hell’s Mouth: Yet the mansion that the Medieval audience always
looked forward to was Hell’s Mouth A gaping cavernous mouth
with fire and demons capering about was the ultimate spectacle.
And the favorite character was of course, the Devil.