Medieval Theater

3 types

Miracle plays

Mystery plays

Morality plays

Miracle plays

“A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint. By 1200’s, they had been divorced from church services and were performed at public festivals. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor.” (Encyclopedia Brittanica online)

more “Both Mary and Nicholas had active cults during

the Middle Ages, and belief in the healing powers of saintly relics was widespread.” Characters included “the devil, a woman falsely accused of murdering her own child, and a pregnant abbess.”

“ Typical of these is a play called St. John the Hairy. At the outset the title character seduces and murders a princess. Upon capture, he is proclaimed a saint by an infant. He confesses his crime, whereupon God and Mary appear and aid John in reviving the princess, which done, the murderer saint is made a bishop.” (Encyclopedia Britannica online)

Why people knew Bible stories: medieval theater

Nothing like we have

Connected to the church

Mystery Plays

Put on by guilds (= “mysteries”)

On top of a wagon (which sometimes would be paraded into town)

Told Biblical stories to illiterate people

Very elaborate, involving hundreds of people

Still ongoing in places like York and Chester

Wagons

Sometimes quite simple

Wagon is brought in a parade

Evolved until it is more elaborate 2012 York Mystery Cycle

York Mystery Cycle

What does this

remind you of?

York mystery plays

Each guild puts on one part, such as Guild of Goldsmiths – Coming of the 3 Kings

Guild of Shipwrights – Building of the Ark

Guild of Butchers – Death of Christ

The “stars”

God

Jesus

Martyred saints

Eve being tempted by Satan

Fall of Adam

Noah and the Ark

Elaborate Ark

Noah and family

Shepherds

The Life of Christ

Crucifixion of Christ

Second Shepherd’s Play

Is also a mystery play

1385-1450

Written by the “Wakefield Master” – called a Master because his plays are so much better than any others written during that time. He used a poetic meter that was his alone and had his own rhyming style, too. He might have been a “minor cleric” (Jacobus 215).

Master also wrote Noah and the Ark, the First Shepherd’s Play, Herod the Great, and The Buffeting.

Wakefield Cycle

Always in late May to early June (Corpus Christi celebration) lasted all day long from sunrise to sunset

Actors were amateurs who did the play on a wagon.

Note that there are social issues mentioned, such as poverty, taxes, prices (Jacobus 216).

Morality Plays

First in Latin, then English

Characters: Vices (Ignorance, Greed, Riot) Virtues (Humility, Good Deeds) The Devil

Battle between vices and virtues

Everyman

A Morality play, around 1495

Author is anonymous but may have been a priest – what is the evidence?

Allegory! – Each character has a distinctive name, costume, and props: Knowledge, Strength, Beauty, Death, Kindred, Goods, and so on.

Lego movie of Everyman

Everyman may go to the devil

A Simple Everyman Play

Everyman’s descendents

Allegorical drama continues on:Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, an Everyman who confronts the devil, angels, Temptation, etc.

Shakespeare’s Falstaff, the Vice become real

Al Bryan Lagman under the direction of Mark Ryan Hernandez – Filipino version which plays annually

Superman and the comic heroes

Who else?

And some non-religious plays, too