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In the Middle Ages in Europe, the theater was reduced to didactic, metaphorical illustrations featuring the "Everyman" or religious cycles. Few if any of these plays are memorable other than as examples of the genre. Nonreligious theater was illegal. |
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In the Middle Ages in Europe, theater was a vital part of people's civic, economic, and religious lives. Among the more notable religious plays were "The Summoning of Everyman" (an allegory designed to teach the faithful that acts of Christian charity are necessary for entry into heaven), passion plays (such as the one at Oberammergau, which is still performed every 10 years), and the great cycle plays (massive, festive wagon-mounted processions involving hundreds of actors, and drawing pilgrims, tourists, and entrepreneurs) [1]. In an age when religion influenced nearly all aspects of public and private life, there was little formal audience for secular theater; nevertheless, wandering mistrels and folk plays developed even as the religious pageants expanded. Since many of the most theatrically successful medieval religious plays were designed to teach Catholic doctrine, the Protestant Reformation targeted the theater, especially in England, in an effort to stamp out allegiance to Rome. See Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c.1580 (1994). |
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