The Medieval Period

1
The Medieval Period

• The Dark Ages -
• I was not I was I am not I care not.
• 800-1400 A.D.

2
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.

3
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.

4
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.

5
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 stories
• Miracle Plays Lives of the Saints
• Morality Plays Didactic Allegories
• Which had characters such as Lust, Pride, Sloth,
  Gluttony, and Hatred.

6
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

7
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.

8
Staging Church Drama

• The Mansion Stage - stationary stage decoration
  of the church interior so called because the
  different areas represented mansions or houses
• Hellmouth 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 monster
• FYI The most complicated hellmouth required 17
  people to operate it. Hellmouths of the late
  Middle Ages appeared more comic than fearsome.

9
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.

10
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.

11
The Pageant Wagon
12
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.

13
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.

14
Noh Theatre of Japan

• Japans 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 seriousappealing 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.