Medieval theatre
Because contemporary conceptions about theatre differ radically from the performance culture of the pre-modern world, it is difficult to find appropriate terms.
And within it, there was "a vast and varied spectrum of kinds of performances: ludus, jeu, ordo, representatio, officium, pagina, miraculum, mystère, processus, interlude, morality, mumming, disguising, and, of course, play.
While surviving evidence about Byzantine theatre is slight, existing records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, and other entertainments were very popular.
[3] Hrosvitha (c. 935–973), an aristocratic canoness and historian in northern Germany, wrote six plays modeled on Terence's comedies but using religious subjects in the 10th century.
[4] In order to preempt criticism from the Church, Hrosvitha declared that she sought to imitate the "laudable" deeds of women in Terence's plays and discard the "shameless" ones.
Faced with the problem of explaining a new religion to a largely illiterate population, churches in the Early Middle Ages began staging dramatized versions of particular biblical events on specific days of the year.
[6] Symbolic objects and actions (vestments, altars, censers, and pantomime performed by priests) recalled the events which Christian ritual celebrates.
Sometime between 965 and 975, Æthelwold of Winchester composed the Regularis Concordia (Monastic Agreement) which contains a playlet complete with directions for performance.
Sometimes plays were staged as part of the occasion, and a certain amount of burlesque and comedy may have entered the liturgical drama as a result of its influence.
A larger number of plays survive from France and Germany in this period, and some type of religious dramas were performed in nearly every European country in the Late Middle Ages.
A significant forerunner of the development of Elizabethan drama was the Chambers of Rhetoric in the Low Countries d Henry VII both maintained small companies of professional actors.
[12] Changing political and economic factors greatly affected theatre at the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the Modern Era.
In Wakefield, for example, the local mystery cycle text shows signs of Protestant editing, with references to the pope crossed out.
It was not just Protestants who attacked the theatre: The Council of Trent banned religious plays in an attempt to rein in the extrabiblical material.
[citation needed] A revival of interest in ancient Roman and Greek culture changed the tastes of the learned classes in the performing arts.
The surviving texts of this oral tradition were recorded in the 18th century, at a time when the Industrial Revolution began to break up the rural communities in which the plays were performed.
[19] In 2001, the Isango Ensemble produced an African version of the Chester Cycle at the Garrick Theatre in London as The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso, performing in a combination of Xhosa, Zulu, English, Latin and Afrikaans.
[20] In 2004, two mystery plays (one focusing on the Creation and the other on the Passion) were performed at Canterbury Cathedral, with actor Edward Woodward in the role of God.
[22] Poel then partnered with British actor Ben Greet to produce the play throughout Britain, with runs on the American Broadway stage from 1902 to 1918,[23] and concurrent tours throughout North America.
[24][25] Another well-known version of the play is Jedermann by the Austrian playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which has been performed annually at the Salzburg Festival since 1920.
A direct-to-video movie version of Everyman was made in 2002, directed by John Farrell, which updated the setting to the early 21st century.
[27] An adaptation by Carol Ann Duffy, the British Poet Laureate, was performed at the National Theatre (UK) in 2015 with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role.
