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Medieval Drama
Folk plays
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Folk Plays
• Non-religious plays
• Performed in the countryside
• Sometimes they funny with much clowning
around and physical humor.
• Sometimes were adventurous and dramatic
• Often base on traditional Folk tales such as
Robin Hood.
• Actors wore masks
Folk Plays
• The plays included drama and comedies
• The dramas had common stories like Robin
Hood etc.
• The comedies were very physical
Other types of entertainment
• Minstrels-a medieval singer or musician,
especially one who sang or recited lyric or
heroic poetry to a musical accompaniment for
the nobility.
• Troubadours- a French medieval lyric poet
composing and singing in Provençal in the
11th to 13th centuries, especially on the
theme of courtly love.
Religious Theater
• Theater of the Middle Ages is most associated
with the plays that originated in the Roman
Catholic Church.
• Many people of the era were not educated.
• The plays developed as a way to teach the
population.
• The Church was reacting to excesses of the
Roman era as Christianity was taking hold
throughout Europe.
Three types of Official plays
• Mystery play
• Miracle play
• Morality play
Mystery play
• Stories about the Bible.
• They included the cycle plays.
• A typical play could be about Adam and Eve,
The Last Supper, The Resurrection or any
Biblical play.
Mystery Plays continued
• Plays were not always serious
- humor helped connect to the uneducated
audience
- When the guilds took over, they were no
longer being produced by the Church.
• The probable reason that they are called
“Mystery” plays is that mystery also means
“religious truth.”
4 intact Cycle plays
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Wakefield
York
Chester
N-town (N stands for “nomen” which means
name.
mansion
Fixed stages that did not move. The audience moved from stage to stage to view
Each cycle play. Some cycles could take all day or several days.
Pageant wagon• Plays became very
popular
• Craft guilds took over
• Used moveable stages
that went from town to
town (Pageant wagons)
Morality Plays
• The first play The Castle of Perseverance
• The focus on the common man and represent
all humanity.
• Major theme- Man’s free will to overcome
vice and temptation in order to get to Heaven.
Allegory
• Morality plays used allegory
• Definition- a story in which the characters and
events are symbols that stand for ideas about
human life or for a political or historical
situation. Source: Merriam-Webster's
• The characters in the plays represented
values, vices, and virtues.
• Example characters: Death, Knowledge Mercy,
Mischief, Good Deeds, Beauty
Most Famous Morality Play
Miracle plays
• Writers: Jean Bodel and Retebeuf
• Focus is on the lives of the Roman Catholic
Saints and the miracles they performed
• Flourished in France.
• Banned in England because they were tied to
Roman Catholic Church
Works cited
“Trumbell, Eric W. “Medieval Theatre.” Introduction to Drama Online Course.
Northern Virginia Community College. 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 25 October 2016.
“Medieval Drama: An Introduction to Middle English Plays.” Luminarium:
Anthology of English Literature. Anniina Jokinen. 19 April 2007. Web. 25
October 2016.
“Medieval Theatre: Mystery, Miracle, Morality.“ Theatrefolk. Web. 25 October
2016 https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/72/download.