The Medieval Period

The Dark Ages -

“I was not; I was; I am not; I care not.”

800-1400 A.D.

The Medieval Church

Devils and Divisions The Devil was a symbol of the

powers of darkness and evil. The Church manipulated those

fears as it sought to convert the pagan world.

The Church played an important stabilizing role.

The Church confined learning and philosophy to monasteries to withhold intellectual activity from the world

The Roman Papacy Determined that the world was

governed by two powers: the sacred authority of the priesthood and royal power.

Pope Gregory I reestablished the Roman Catholic Church

He sponsored Saint Augustine in his mission to convert England in 597.

The Early Theatre

Scholars argue that theatre ceased to exist in the Western world for a period of several hundred years.

Two pieces of evidence exist proving otherwise. Wandering enterainers:

mimists, jugglers, bear baiters, acrobats, wrestlers, and storytellers.

A ruling occurred that forbid clergy from viewing the obscenities of the theatre or actors.

The Beginnings of Liturgical Drama

Liturgical drama began an an elaboration of the Roman Catholic Mass.Dramas were performed on ceremonial occasions---especially Easter.Records at Winchester in southern England dating from the later 10th century tell of dramas in which priests acted out the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb.So theatre, along with all the other arts, except dance, was adopted by the church and became and instrument of God in an age of faith and demons.

The Trope: Earliest Church Drama

The earliest church dramas, known as the trope, was a simple elaboration and illustration of the Mass.

Later, three distinct styles emerged.

Mystery Plays: Bible storiesMiracle Plays: Lives of the Saints Morality Plays: Didactic Allegories Which had characters

such as Lust, Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, and Hatred.

The Trope Continued

Tropes were performed in the sanctuary, using niches around the church as specific scenic locations.At first, only priests performed the roles.Later, laymen were allowed to act in liturgical drama.Female roles were usually played by boys, but some evidence suggests that women did participate occasionally.Picture: Notre Dame Cathedral Paris, France

Popularity Grows: The Use of Laymen

Evidence suggests that as laymen assumed a greater role, certain, vulgarities were introduced.

Comedy and comic characters appeared---even in the Easter tropes. The first comic character was the merchant.

The most popular comic character was the devil.

Staging Church Drama

The Mansion Stage - stationary stage decoration of the church interior; so called because the different areas represented “mansions” or housesHellmouth – the mouth of hell into which sinners were cast; devils amid smoke and fire, pulling sinners into the mouth of hell; jaws of dragon-like monsterFYI: The most complicated hellmouth required 17 people to operate it. Hellmouths of the late Middle Ages appeared more comic than fearsome.

Staging Continued

When the action of a play moved away from a specific mansion, the visual representations became conventional, just as we saw in classical Greek theatre.

The stage could represent any place, as opposed to representation of place found in the mansion.

The text of the play told the audience where the action was supposed to occur, and the audience then imagined that locale.

The Pageant Wagon

When theatre moved outside of the church, theatre was brought to the audience on a succession of pageant wagons. Like floats of a modern parade. Each wagon carried the set for a specific part of the play cycle. Many of these wagons were very elaborate, two stories tall, and curtained for entrances and exits like a modern theatre. In some cases, a flat wagon was combined with an elaborate background wagon to provide a playing area.

The Pageant Wagon

Everyman: A Morality Play

One of the most enduring plays, which is still performed today.Everyman is an anonymous morality play in which the hero undertakes a journey to his death.He seeks the company of earthly things: Fellowship, Kindred, and Goods. He is deserted by all except Good Deeds. Good Deeds alone accompanies him to his fate.

Theatre: A static Art

Theatre is often a static art, far more resistant to change than the other arts, which tend to evolve around the vision of a single artist.

Theatre, more a group expression, gets caught in its own inertia.

Noh Theatre of Japan

Japan’s two great dramatic forms, Noh and Kabuki, both originated from religious rituals dating to the late eight and ninth century, when dramatic devices were used as teaching tools by Buddhist monks.Noh drama grew out of two sources: simple dramas based on symbolic dances performed to music at the imperial court, and similar mimetic performances popular with the common people.

Noh drama is performed on a simple, almost bare stage and, like Classical Greek tragedy, uses only two actors.Actors wear elaborate masks and costumes and a chorus functions as a narrator.The tone tends to be serious—appealing to the intellect. The plays are usually short.240 scripts come from the fourteenth century.Noh drama is classified into five types: plays about the gods, warriors, women, spirits or mad persons, and demons. Performed in this order.