di Teatro medievale inglese
Medieval theatre: its origins are Greek, with Sofocle and Euripide. These used to take place in a religious contest with invocations to Gods. Later, the Romans who spread it all over the Empire with Terenzio and Plauto imported the theatre: they introduced extra elements with light comedies that were different from the Greek ancient tragedies. As Christianity couldn’t accept those light comedies, they were abolished so theatre developed following the old religious contest. The Holy Mess itself is pretty similar to a tragedy with songs played by priests who also narrates elements and songs, which are dramatic. The first example of English theatre is “Quem quaeretis” referred to the episode of the Christ’s Resurrection, when people found an Angel saying “Quem quaretis”. There are three different kinds of plays: The Mystery Plays narrate the Bible and were performed by normal people. The Miracle Plays narrate the life of Saints, in which actors really suffered and could also die. The Morality Plays were allegories in which you can find virtues and vices. The most famous one’s “Everyman” that narrates that when you die all the things you’ve done pass away, but good deeds remain. Those used to take place in the streets in structures called pageants (/pegens/): there were some sponsors that paid for these theatrical forms, there were guilds and corporations. Actors used to play these stories in the afternoon because of the natural light of the sun, and there were no light bulbs. At the time, there was a big interactive rule “played” by the audience.
