The words ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’ conjure a specific set of ideas, writers and images for us today. Shakespeare may well be the first name to spring to mind – followed perhaps by Ibsen or Chekhov. Then, most likely, comes the image of a fixed stage, a darkened room and a reverent hush as the lights go down and the curtains go up. What kind of stories do we expect to be performed for us? Tragedy, often, as well as romance, explorations of the meaning of humanity, or, at the other end of the spectrum, slapstick comedy. Theatre may be rich in variety, but it nonetheless comes with its own set of associations and expectations attached. 

While modern theatre undoubtedly finds many of its origins in medieval drama, the mystery plays, pageants and morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries are actually a very different animal, with quite a different set of associations. Imagine not a fixed stage and a darkened room, but mobile theatre out on the streets. Some people are watching carefully, but others are chatting with their friends, or buying food and merchandise from nearby vendors – keeping only one eye on the stage. Instead of the latest big name from an HBO series, you may well recognise a number of the actors from your own daily life. And instead of a focus on the individual and human relationships, you’re treated to scenes from the Bible, about Christianity and the history of salvation. Medieval drama took many forms, but the most spectacular of all was the religious drama of towns such as York, Chester, Coventry and Wakefield, known as the ‘mystery plays.’ 

The mystery plays are sequences of performances, sometimes referred to as ‘cycle plays’ because they make up a cycle of 48 surviving short playlets. Throughout the 15th and into the 16th century, around 300 years before the building of the London playhouses, these cycles were the most popular and enduring form of theatre in Britain, performed annually in the biggest towns and cities of the country. They are most commonly known as the ‘mystery plays’ for two reasons. Firstly, they took the mysteries of God as their primary theme. They aimed to show, in the course of a day, the whole history of the universe from the creation of Heaven and Earth to the Last Judgement – the end of the world, when everyone on earth will be judged by God and divided between Heaven and Hell, salvation and damnation. Secondly, these plays were organised, funded and produced by guilds, which were also called ‘mysteries’ in the Middle Ages. Guilds were associations of craftsmen or merchants, who were in charge of regulating and teaching their trade; they were often wealthy and wielded considerable power. 

Students of medieval mystery plays are often surprised, even shocked, by their humour. Noah is portrayed as a bit of a drunken fool, and his wife as a shrewish nag. The York play of the Crucifixion, which concerns Jesus being nailed to the Cross, sees the soldiers arguing and making the audience laugh with their incompetence. This might seem sacrilegious to a modern audience, but it was part and parcel of medieval life and the attitude of medieval Christians to their religion. The comic nature of Noah’s character in these plays did not detract from the overall importance and significance of their Christian message: it just amused and entertained the audience on the journey to salvation. The black humour of the York play of the Crucifixion did not risk dampening the awe and glory of Christ rising from the dead, fighting back devils or allocating the saved to Heaven – rather, it amplified his triumph. The mystery plays seem to have been tacitly approved and sanctioned by the Church, even if religious authorities weren’t directly involved in the plays themselves. It wasn’t until the Reformation that these plays suffered serious revision, increased regulation and ultimately a phasing out. 

A surviving manuscript, housed in the British Library, shows that there were some critics of these plays, even if the majority welcomed and enjoyed them. The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge (c. 1380–1425, Add MS 24202), the first work of theatre criticism in English, condemns the mystery plays for their blurring of the divine and the human. How could a human being play the role of Jesus? Didn’t performing the sacred mysteries and sacraments of God with ordinary objects detract from them? ‘Whanne we pleyin his miraclis’, the Tretise complains, ‘God takith more venjaunce on us than a lord that sodaynly sleeth his servaunt for he pleyide to homely [familiar] with him’. These accusations are precursors to the kinds of criticism levelled at the mystery plays during the Reformation, which would eventually lead to their demise. However, it is safe to say that for a couple of hundred years they were a sanctioned and celebrated way of telling the story of Christianity. 

Mystery plays may have been the most popular form of theatre in the Middle Ages, but they weren’t the only one. Mumming, revels, interludes and pageants were all part of medieval theatrical life, and a number of critics have even drawn attention to the performative nature of church rituals, such as the Liturgy and the Eucharist. Another popular genre was the morality play, which endured into the Tudor period. Morality plays are allegorical (i.e. the characters and events have symbolic meaning) and provide their audience with Christian moral guidance. In this kind of religious drama we follow a primary character (representing mankind) as they encounter a cast of personified vices and virtues, before ultimately turning to righteousness and salvation. Such serious themes are counterpointed by moments of farcical comedy, primarily provided by the vice characters. The plays were usually quite short and were performed by semi-professionals who relied on public support. 

Dr. Hetta Elizabeth Howes is a Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She has published on crying and cleansing in Aelred of Rievaulx's writings for women and the relationship between blood and shame in medieval lyrics. She is currently turning her doctoral thesis into a monograph, examining the role of water as a literary metaphor in devotional prose – with a particular emphasis on works written for and by women. 

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