Tikrit University College of Education for Humanities English Department First year 2019-2020

Medieval Theatre

Assist. Prof. Marwa Sami Hussein

Medieval Theatre

Medieval times started after the fall of Rome and lasted through to 15th century, roughly to the Protestant Reformation. In this time before the printing press made it necessary or even possible for the great majority of people to read, the primary method of teaching and learning was through the oral tradition. Throughout this time, the church had grown to become the most powerful and most consistent institution throughout Europe.

Since theatre tells stories, it was a natural mechanism for telling the bible stories and delivering any other information the church wanted communicated to the people, particularly as this period was a time of turmoil (chaos) and the church was the only stable government. In fact, the church had become so strong that it was able to close all theatre productions except for those that it officially sanctioned (acceptable). Those plays fell into three categories: morality, mystery and miracle plays.

1-Mystery play

Mystery play: is a dramatic genre, one of three principal kinds of vernacular (colloquial) drama in Europe during the Middle Ages (along with the miracle play and the morality play). The mystery plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed from plays presented in Latin by churchmen on church premises (building) and depicted such subjects as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.

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During the 13th century, various guilds began producing the plays in the vernacular at sites removed from the churches. Under these conditions, the strictly religious nature of the plays declined, and they became filled with irrelevancies elements. Furthermore, satirical elements were introduced to mock physicians, soldiers, judges, and even monks and priests.

The form in which the mystery plays developed contributed to their disappearance (end) at the end of the 16th century. The church no longer supported them because of their dubious (doubtful ) religious value, Renaissance scholars found little of interest in their great rambling texts, and the general public preferred professional traveling companies that were beginning to arrive from Italy. In England the mystery cycles and miracle plays were suspected of Roman Catholic tendencies and were gradually suppressed (terminated).

2-Morality play

Morality play: is a dramatic genre, also called morality, an allegorical drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral lessons are taught.

Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the morality play is one of the three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle Ages. The action of the morality play centres on a hero, such as Mankind, whose inherent weaknesses are assaulted by such personified diabolic (demonic, devilish) forces as the Seven Deadly Sins but who may choose redemption and enlist the aid of such figures as the Four Daughters of God (Mercy, Justice, Temperance, and Truth).

Morality plays were an intermediate step in the transition from liturgical (ritual) to professional secular (worldly) drama, and combine elements of each. Of all morality plays, the one that is considered the greatest, and that is still performed, is Everyman.

3-Miracle play

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Miracle play: is a dramatic genre, also called Saint’s Play, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama of the European Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and the morality play). A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint. The genre evolved from liturgical offices developed during the 10th and 11th centuries to enhance calendar festivals. By the 13th century they had been divorced from church services and were performed at public festivals. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. Both Mary and Nicholas had active cults during the Middle Ages, and belief in the healing powers of saintly relics was widespread. In this climate, miracle plays flourished.

Interlude

Interlude: Interludes were performed at court or at “great houses” by professional minstrels or amateurs at intervals between some other entertainment, such as a banquet, or preceding or following a play, or between acts. Although most interludes were sketches of a nonreligious nature, some plays were called interludes that are today classed as morality plays.

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Notes:

Vernacular plays performed in the language of the local people, rather than in the Latin of the church.

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Major Periods

European theatre

o 1- Greek theatre o 2- Roman theatre o 3- Transition and early Medieval theatre, 500–1050 o 4- High and late Medieval theatre, 1050–1500 o 5- Commedia dell'arte & Renaissance. It originated in Italy in the 1560s o 6- English Elizabethan theatre. The second half of the 16th C and the beginning of the 17th C 3

o 7- Restoration comedy from 1660 to 1710 o 8- Restoration spectacular late 17th-century o 9- Neoclassical theatre 18th century o 10- Nineteenth-century theatre o 11- Twentieth-century theatre

American theatre

o 1- 1752 to 1895 Romanticism o 2- 1895 to 1945 Realism o 3- 1945 to 1990 Modernism

Centuries

The 15th century lasted from January 1, 1401 to December 1500 .

The 16th century lasted from January 1, 1501 to December 1600 .

The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 to December 1700 .

The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 to December 1800.

The 19th century lasted from January 1, 1801 to December 1900 .

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