Description
Book SynopsisEssays on the performance of drama from the middle ages, ranging from the well-known cycles of York to matter from Iran. Medieval English Theatre is the premier journal in early theatre studies. Its name belies its wide range of interest: it publishes articles on theatre and pageantry from across the British Isles up to the opening of the London playhouses and the suppression of the civic mystery cycles, and also includes contributions on European and Latin drama, together with analyses of modern survivals or equivalents, and of research productions of medieval plays. The articles here focus on civic theatre and display. Chester, York, Durham and Newcastle, and London. Practicalities are to the fore: what the Drawers of Dee actually did, how the actors in the York Corpus Christi Play knewwhat time it was, the difficulties presented to London pageantry by unauthorised house-extensions and horse-droppings. Even the stately entertainments of a royal tour by James VI & I featured (in Newcastle, of course) negotiationover the monopoly on coal disguised as a historical event in a play about King Alfred and Canute. Ranging further afield is an introduction to the living tradition of Iranian mystery plays, whose history and development have somethought-provoking parallels with those of medieval waggon plays in the West. Finally, the director and producer discuss their 2019 production of John Redford's Wit and Science by Edward's Boys, the first to be played by aboys' company since the sixteenth century.
Table of ContentsThe Sun in York (Part Two): Illumination, Reflection, and Timekeeping for the Corpus Christi Play - Meg Twycross Remembering through Re-Enacting: Revisiting the Emergence of the Iranian Ta'zia Tradition - E. Lucy Deacon Welcoming James VI & I in the North-East: Civic Performance and Conflict in Durham and Newcastle - Mark C Chambers Welcoming James VI & I in the North-East: Civic Performance and Conflict in Durham and Newcastle - Gasper Jakovac Salmon-Fishing and Beer-Brewing: The Waterleaders and Drawers of Dee and Chester's Corpus Christi and Whitsun Plays - Ernst Gerhardt Jetties, Pentices, Purprestures, and Ordure: Obstacles to Pageants and Processions in London - Philip Butterworth Staging John Redford's Wit and Science in 2019 - Elisabeth Dutton and Perry Mills
