Thursday, 27 March 2008

The theatre in England

Originally the theatre in England was linked to religious celebrations, mainly about Christian events, and the performances took places within churches but later they moved to different places. T
his manifested the fact that Latin was replaced with English and as a result there were no monks to make these performances but people.
During this period, about the 13th 14th 15th centuries, born the famous “Miracle plays” that gave a dramatic profile to the entire story of the Bible. This was the most important form that characterises the Medieval Drama.
The “Miracle Plays” were staged by members of the trade guilds and they performed on movable stage wagons called pageants, which turned around the city and used to stop at some places where the people could watch the stage they wanted to see.
The “Morality Plays” was another important form of theatre. The characters of this kind of form were personifications of human vices and virtues, so they weren’t Biblical characters.
The “interludes” were born about at the end of the 15th century: they were a kind of short play that used to be performed by a small acting company at a lord’s house; the aim was to combine elements comic and serious.

Martina Goretti

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