1. Tuesday, Oct. 2 - Theater

2. 3 types
Miracle plays
Mystery plays
Morality plays

3. Miracle plays
“A miracle play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint. By 1200’s, 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.”
(Encyclopedia Brittanica online)

4. more
“Both Mary and Nicholas had active cults during the Middle Ages, and belief in the healing powers of saintly relics was widespread.” Characters included “the devil, a woman falsely accused of murdering her own child, and a pregnant abbess.”
“ Typical of these is a play called St. John the Hairy. At the outset the title character seduces and murders a princess. Upon capture, he is proclaimed a saint by an infant. He confesses his crime, whereupon God and Mary appear and aid John in reviving the princess, which done, the murderer saint is made a bishop.”

5. Why people knew Bible stories: medieval theater
Nothing like we have
Connected to the church

6. Mystery Plays Put on by guilds (= “mysteries”)
On top of a wagon (which sometimes would be paraded into town)
Told Biblical stories to illiterate people
Very elaborate, involving hundreds of people
Still ongoing in places like York and Chester

7. Wagons
Sometimes quite simple

8. Wagon is brought in a parade

9. Evolved until it is more elaborate 2012 York Mystery Cycle
What does this
remind you of?

10. York mystery plays
Each guild puts on one part, such as Guild of Goldsmiths – Coming of the 3 Kings
Guild of Shipwrights – Building of the Ark
Guild of Butchers – Death of Christ

11. The “stars” God Jesus Martyred saints Eve being tempted by Satan
Fall of Adam
Noah and the Ark

12. Elaborate Ark

13. Noah and family

14. Shepherds

15. The Life of Christ

16. Crucifixion of Christ

17. Morality Plays

18. First in Latin, then English
Characters:
Vices (Ignorance, Greed, Riot)
Virtues (Humility, Good Deeds)
The Devil

19. Battle between vices and virtues

20. Everyman may go to the devil
A Simple Everyman Play

21. And some non-religious plays, too