HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the barbarians from the north took over most of Europe.  They absorbed parts of Roman culture, including Christianity and when Charlemagne became ruler he was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.   By the year 1000 _C.E. medieval society was in full swing and westerners were making technological and cultural developments.  Agrarian people lived under feudalism, a hierarchical system which determined property and social class.  Towns' people lived separate from the feudal system.  The tradesmen gathered in guilds to promote their goods and services and train new apprentices.  Monks became literate by copying manuscripts, and monasteries became centers for learning.  There were also at least 100 universities built in Europe by the end of the High Middle Ages. 

SECULAR

Popular entertainments such as mimes and jugglers continued throughout the Early Middle Ages.  Performers would travel with their acts, but were criticized by the church for being too pagan.  Other celebrations, like those on May Day were also highly criticized.  The bishops of the Christian church tried to prevent secular entertainments and festival performances from turning into pagan theatrical activity.  The barbarians, although converted to Christianity, refused to give up their pagan rituals.  The church realized that they were not going to win the fight and so a compromise was made.  An example of performances at festivals were the Mummers' Plays.

Glynne Wickham describes the basic form of the Mummers' Play:

A presenter clears a space for the performance and calls out a Champion (usually named St. George or Prince George).  An antagonist then appears in the playing area (representing someone from a faraway place like Morocco or Turkey) and there is an argument between the two.  The argument varied but sometimes revolved around claims to the same woman and always resulted in a battle.  The Champion wins, slaying his enemy.  While a dance is performed, characters with boxes play music and collect donations.

The church allowed all this to go on but they moved the play to the closest Christian holiday and took out all inappropriate content.  The Champion in the play was even presented as Father Christmas occasionally¹.

Performances at festivals eventually developed into two types of secular plays:

Folk Plays: About folk heroes and their adventures

Farce: Varying in plot but involving some sort human weakness

Another secular form of theatre was the interlude.  Groups of traveling professional players would perform at banquets between courses.

Street Pageants were performed along the sides of the streets in Europe when monarchs visited.  These tableaux were pantomimed but did have occasional narration.

LITURGICAL DRAMA

While the church was condemning secular theatrical activity, their own services involved the roots of theatre:

Liturgical drama was used by the church to spread Christianity and to teach good morals.  The presentations were developed in monasteries but by 1000 they were so popular they spread to churches across Europe.

Fight About It! Vernacular Drama moved from the inside of churches to outside playing areas.  Some scholars believe that external vernacular performances developed separately from interior liturgical plays.  There is evidence in France that they developed alongside one another, instead of one developing into the other.  There are also some scholars who believe that a series of reasons called for plays to have to be moved outside.  Wilson and Goldfarb explain some reasons for the move:

♦Productions were becoming too elaborate and difficult to stage

♦The cost was rising too high for the churches to fund them

♦Church officials were getting stricter about not using holy spaces for drama²

VERNACULAR PLAYS

Q: What kinds of vernacular drama were there?

A: Mystery/Cycle Plays, Morality Plays and Miracle Plays

Mystery/Cycle Plays:

♦Written in vernacular

♦A series of biblical events staged together as a "cycle" of plays

♦Performed at Corpus Christi

♦Obvious anachronisms (e.g. Dressing Joseph in Medieval peasant clothing and referring to biblical characters that haven't been born yet)

♦Elements of secular folk plays and farce (e.g. farcical caricatures and increased spectacle)

Wickham's description of Miracle Plays¹:

♦Based on lives of the saints

♦Some were as elaborate as Cycle plays, but some were shorter

♦Usually performed at local festivals

♦A full script may never have existed for some

♦The first Saint Play was of St. Nicholas, which was a "liturgical music-drama"

♦There is evidence of these plays in England, France, and Germany but they reached a pinnacle in Spain and Italy with their elaborate rehearsals.

Morality Plays:

♦Teach a moral lesson
♦Involve a battle between good and evil

♦Performed any time of the year, not tied to any Christian events or characters, but rooted in Christian ideals

♦Uses allegorical characters to represent ideas such as greed

Until the middle ages there was one major dramatic form in the western world.  Crisis drama was developed by the Greeks and Romans and some plays still follow this form.  With the Middle Ages came a new dramatic form called the episodic structure.  This form developed throughout history and became more complex, being used by playwrights throughout western theatre literature, including Shakespeare.

PRODUCING CYCLE PLAYS

Producers: Usually guilds, called confraternities, although occasionally the church would also help to fund.

Actors: -Amateurs

               -In some countries women performed (France), others they didn't (England)

               -Doubling roles was very common

               -Actors swore an oath to be present at rehearsals and performances

               -Type-casted

Costume: Actors provided their own costumes, and since most characters were "modern" medieval representations, it wasn't difficult for the actors to provide costumes.  Some costumes were more elaborate and included wearing church robes, which the church provided.  Angels would have wings and halos attached at well.

Rehearsals: Rehearsals were limited, only a few before the performances.  Wickham explains that actors were able to memorize lines and blocking so quickly because they performed the same plays every year, and many actors played the same roles each year.  Rehearsals were mainly for new actors and for additions to the script¹.  Actors were devoted to performances because they felt a religious obligation, and if an actor missed a rehearsal they were fined.  Rehearsals were overseen by an individual called the "pageant master".

Pageant Master: The pageant master was hired to oversee rehearsals, like a modern-day director.  The pageant master was onstage with the actors with a script and could feed them lines.  The artist Jean Fouquet includes the pageant master in his painting of a play about St. Apollonia:

The pageant master is the one with the baton and the book in his hands.

¹Wickham, Glynne. The Medieval Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.