The development of drama

The development of drama

ORIGIN The origins of British drama date back to the Middle Ages. Before that time street performers went around the country to performed their shows also in the halls of aristocrats.

LITURGICAL DRAMA Drama was used to give to the peasants a religious education. At first liturgical drama was used, in the form of a dialogue between the celebrants.

MISTERY PLAYS In the fourteenth century, a new religious festival was introduced in the month of June to celebrate "Corpus Christi". In this day there is a procession around the village or town. The processions developed into a new form of drama that consisted of a number of plays, called mystery plays.

THE SUBJECT The Mystery Plays were single episodes, articulated in a Mystery Cycle. The subject were biblical stories, as the Nativity and Passion. They were written in the English spoken by local people. The setting is York or some other English town.

THE PERFORMANCE Each play was performed by the trade or craft guilds of the town.

THE MANUSCRIPTS The manuscripts have been preserved, but their authors are anonymous.

MORALITY PLAYS There are also other plays, anonymous, called Morality Plays. At first morality plays were performed by travelling professional companies on a platform built in an open space. Later they indoors into the banquet halls of nobleman.

ALLEGORICAL TALE These plays usually told an allegorical tale. Their characters were allegorical personifications or symbols of various aspects of the human life

DRAMA Morality plays are a medieval form of drama which developed with the people's religious education. The earliest morality play is of the fourteenth century.

ORIGINS AND FEATURES These plays were written to teach people to improve their moral behaviour. They originated by Catholic church in thirteenth century to educate common people. Most morality plays are based on two recurrent formulas. The first represents human life as a pilgrimage towards salvation. In the morality plays there are comic elements, with the sole exception of EVERYMAN.