Medieval Theatre Notes - PDF

MEDIEVAL THEATRE Juliana Trapkov Middle Ages/Medieval Period -​ Started at the fall of the Roman Empire (475 AD) -​ Ended around 1300 to 1500 AD -​ No exact start/end Dark Ages: -​ Another name for the Early Middle Ages -​ Misleading -​ After fall of Rome, people saw this period...

MEDIEVAL THEATRE Juliana Trapkov Middle Ages/Medieval Period -​ Started at the fall of the Roman Empire (475 AD) -​ Ended around 1300 to 1500 AD -​ No exact start/end Dark Ages: -​ Another name for the Early Middle Ages -​ Misleading -​ After fall of Rome, people saw this period of having no cultural value -​ A lot of social insecurity Feudal System: -​ Privileged nobility and church owned most of the land -​ Peasants (majority of the population) worked/farmed the land -​ Had to give a portion of their harvest in exchange for living on their land The Church and Drama -​ Negative attitude towards Drama -​ Church banned/discouraged against drama -​ Very few plays were written during Early Middle Ages Trope: -​ Short dramatized scene -​ Helped the people in congregation who didn’t know how to read understand what was happening -​ Introduced by the Church -​ Started in France Hrosuitha: -​ A nun who wrote religious comedies performed on mansions -​ In the 10th century Three Distinct Plays 1.​ Mystery Plays = Bible 2.​ Miracle Plays = Saints’ Lives 3.​ Morality Plays = Right from Wrong (Most famous one here is Everyman) Adding Comedy: -​ In 13th and 14th century, plays were moved outside -​ Drama in churches became louder -​ At this point, the Church lost control of theatre -​ Playwrights used it to make fun of well-known evil characters -​ (King Herod, comedic devil) -​ (Hell’s Mouth represented Hell, with a dragon’s jaw opening and closing) Sponsorship: -​ Trade guilds started sponsoring plays -​ Trade Guild = unions of workers in specific fields -​ They presented episodes in theatre to show off their skills -​ (Cooks = Hell’s Mouth) -​ (Shipbuilders = Noah’s Ark) Mansion Arrangement: -​ Some towns = in a single line, heaven at one end, hell at the other, the rest of the setting in between -​ In other towns = setting was arranged around the marketplace, audience moving from one station to the next England, France, Netherlands: -​ Pageant wagons were used (double decked wagons) -​ Lower story: costume change room -​ Upper section: for the play’s action -​ Wagons were brought to the audience (kinda like parade floats nowadays) -​ In England they were called “cycles” Passion Play -​ Showed Christ’s life -​ Especially last days of suffering & resurrection Passion Play at Oberammergau -​ Hundreds of years ago, people in that village prayed that if they were saved from the Black Plague, they would regularly perform passion plays -​ First performed in 1633 after the village was saved -​ Has been performed every 10 years since then -​ (Except during World War 2 in 1940)