Chapter 1

History (c.900AD - 1400AD)

After the fall of the Roman Empire the Church was the only stable form of "government." Unfortunately, the Church thought the theatre was sinful and tried to put a stop to performances altogether. In time the Church came to understand the power of theatre, in particular its ability to teach, and so they decided to make it part of the Church's service. Performances describing the tales of the Bible were presented by priests, brothers and nuns (usually accompanied by a choir) to teach a largely illiterate population about their faith and moral beliefs. Eventually, as congregations grew larger dramas were moved outside and became a pageant with the different trade guilds taking on different stories of the bible, e.g., the fishermen may have staged a scene from Jonah and the Whale or Noah's Ark. During the 1300s the Church had less control over the production of plays, but it always kept an eye on their contents and their presentation reserving the right to approve or disapprove a script before it became a production. It was during this period that individuals and in some cases whole towns took on the responsibility of producing plays for the general population.

Themes

Some of the most popular genres in the Middle Ages included: mystery plays, miracle plays, and morality plays.

• Mystery Plays: About Christ or the Old Testament.
• Miracle Plays: About the lives of saints, both historical and legendary.
• Morality Plays: These plays were meant to teach people how to live a moral and just existence through tales about common man's struggle for salvation.

The plays of this time often focused on themes such as:

• Morality
• Good versus evil
• The nature of miracles
• Life after death
• Heaven and Hell

Chapter 2

Stagecraft

Staging

Once plays moved outside the church, there were two types of staging.

Fixed Staging

The early Miracle and Mystery plays were performed with mansions, a series of acting stations placed in a line. The mansions or houses, were biblical localities such as Heaven, Pilate's House, Jerusalem and Hell's Mouth. Hell's Mouth was a strange contraption that delighted medieval audiences. It breathed fire and smoke, its jaws opened and closed, and as the actors portraying the wicked were pushed in, their piteous cries could be heard. Fixed staging was more popular in Europe. Heaven and hell were often portrayed as the far right, and far left mansions (refer to the example below).

A 1547 Valenciennes set design showing Heaven (left), a Hell Mouth (right), and various places there between.

Moveable Staging

By the late fourteenth century, the medieval trade unions, or guilds, had taken over the presentation of most of the Miracle and Mystery plays in England. Most were performed during a celebration called the festival of Corpus Christi, which had been officially instituted in 1264 A.D. Each guild, according to the craft of its members, presented one part of the story. The bakers presented the Last Supper; the goldsmiths, the Three Wise Men; the shipwrights, the Construction of the Ark.

Each guild had its own pageant wagon, or stage on wheels The pageant wagon was divided into two levels. The upper level served as a platform stage, and the lower level, curtained off, served as a dressing room. The wagons travelled from town to town in a procession. The audience could remain in one spot while the pageant wagons moved through town. The entire sequence of plays was called a cycle, a series of short plays that depicted religious history from creation through doomsday. The guilds competed with one another to see which could stage the most elaborate production.

Chapter 3

Acting

Actors in the Medieval form presented with heightened realism similar to that of the Ancient Greeks. Their characters were clearly defined by physiological traits that were often revealed though monologues scenes. Given that theatre was controlled largely by the Church throughout the Middle Ages we often saw representations of God and His angels as well as the Devil and his demons. Supernatural characters were generally more expressive (melodramatic) in comparison to human characters. Human characters ranged from saints to sinners and these characters were usually more realistic than supernatural characters. Given that performances were usually conducted outdoors actors needed to be especially skilled with their voices being able to sustain loud and expressive tones and even sing. Like the theatre of the Ancient Greeks movement needed to be large and controlled so that audiences could interpret the action more easily.