Over the holiday season, Southwark Playhouse is presenting their reinterpretation of The Ballad of Robin Hood.
Love and Marriage on the Medieval English Stage: Using the English Cycle Plays as Sources for Social History
December 3, 2014 By
Much scholarship concerning the concept of “companionate” marriage traces its origins to the early modern period as clergymen, especially Protestant ones, began to publish “guides” to the relationships and respective duties of husbands and wives in the 1500s and 1600s.
Religious Education as the Basis of Medieval Literature
September 15, 2014 By
The medieval literature was written with a purpose to teach Christian dogmas to the masses. The prose and poetry of the time meant to show men the ugliness of sin and the beauty of goodness.
The Depiction of Jews in the Carnival Plays and Comedies of Hans Folz and Hans Sachs in Early Modern Nuremberg
August 23, 2014 By
This study will thus demonstrate that the Bakhtinian model and its critics both contribute to our understanding of the Fastnachtspiel and the development of early modern German attitudes toward Jews.
THINGS TO SEE: Murder in the Cathedral
June 11, 2014 By
This is my review of the T.S. Eliot’s play, “Murder in the Cathedral”, on at St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, London.
Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance
May 13, 2014 By
Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?
Substitution: Theatrical Sleight of Hand in Medieval Plays
April 20, 2014 By
Substitution is concerned with replacing one thing with another. This is straight forward enough. But to what extent is the replacement indistinguishable from the original in order to qualify as substitution?
Poetics and beyond: noisy bodies and aural variations in medieval English outdoor performance
January 23, 2014 By
Pilate opens the Tapiters and Couchers guild’s pageant of Christ before Pilate I in the York Corpus Christi Play by asserting himself acoustically, threatening those who ‘cruelly are cry and’.
Caught in the (One-)Act: Staging Sex in Late Medieval French Farce
August 21, 2013 By
Caught in the (One-)Act: Staging Sex in Late Medieval French Farce Sharon D. King Paper given at the 14th Triennial Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l’étude du Théâtre Médiéval Poznań, Poland, 22nd – 27th July (2013) Abstract Among the myriad subjects for comical delectation of audiences of late medieval France,the rules and roles of […]
Taking (and Giving) Blows: Patterns of Violence and Spectacle in Le Mystère de Saint Martin (1496)
August 18, 2013 By
What I would like to do here is examine the passages of violence and other bits of scenography, moving from the macro to the micro level and back again, over the three- day play. With 260 rubrics (stage directions) embodied in the text, a manuscript nearly contemporaneous with the performance itself, we have a unique opportunity to visualize much of the action on stage.
Manifestations of the Grotesque and Carnivalesque Body in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal
August 1, 2013 By
Manifestations of the Grotesque and Carnivalesque Body in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal Brian Gourley (School of English, Queen’s University Belfast)Queen’s University Belfast, Quest, Vol.1 (2006) Abstract Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) remains arguably his best-known work. If one talks of the existence of a genre of medieval film, and subsequently, the […]
The Enduring Appeal of Richard III
April 14, 2013 By
It has indeed been confidently asserted that [Richard the 3d] killed his two Nephews & his Wife, but it has also been declared that he did not kill his two Nephews.
Corpus Christi Plays and the Stations of the Cross: Medieval York and Modern Sydney
April 1, 2013 By
The earliest surviving reference to the Corpus Christi festival in York is dated 1322, when Archbishop William Melton commended it as „the glorious feast of the most precious sacrament of the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ‟. In 1408 the York Guild of Corpus Christi was established „as a confraternity of chaplains and lay persons, with the encouragement of the city government, probably to form the focus of the civic Corpus Christi Day procession‟.
The Virgin Mary in High Medieval England, A Divinely Malleable Woman: Virgin, Intercessor, Protector, Mother, Role Model
March 31, 2013 By
This thesis examines the significance of the Virgin Mary in England between the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. The primary sources selected indicate the variety of ideas circulating about her during this period. Strictly religious texts such as the Bible and early Christian writings ground Late Medieval beliefs about Mary in their historical context.
Dancing Devils and Singing Angels: Dance Scenes in German Religious Plays
December 26, 2012 By
The early Church had a mostly critical attitude towards the dance. It was said that those who dance cherish heathen godheads and that they allow their bodies rule over their minds. Repeatedly, the synods prohibited religious dances and/or dances within churches.
English Mystery Plays – Staging Patterns and Orality Features
December 16, 2012 By
Medieval English theatre is a term covering a large body of plays, performances and theatrical activities. The entire period of medieval drama spans for five hundred years.
Shakespeare’s Richard II: Machiavelli for the Good of England
December 15, 2012 By
The name Machiavelli has negative connotations, and this way of thinking is not new. Throughout Europe, in Shakespeare’s time and earlier, Machiavellianism was associated with unscrupulous abuse of power, and Machiavellian methods were seen as immoral and evil.
The Sad Death of a King: The Legacy of Richard the Second
December 15, 2012 By
This thesis will examine the manner in which Shakespeare drew upon existing sources material to depict a king whose inherent character flaws made him unworthy of his crown.
The Middle Ages after the Middle Ages. Medievalism in the Study of European Drama and Theatre History
August 15, 2012 By
If we are going to acknowledge the afterlife of medieval genres, subject matters, motifs and techniques, three methods of research are preferable: 1. looking for simple continuity, 2. taking into account residual afterlife of medieval items in popular culture including folklore, and 3. recognizing the phenomena of the renewal of medieval genres in later ages.
Craftsmanship of the Digby Mary Magdalene play
April 27, 2012 By
The Digby Mary Magdalene is contained in the Digby MS. 133 of the Bodlein Library. Included in the Manuscript are three other plays, Killing of the Children, The Conversion of St Paul, and a portion of Wisdom.
‘I do mistake my person all this while’: Blindness and Illusion in Richard III
October 3, 2011 By
‘I do mistake my person all this while’: Blindness and Illusion in Richard III Rutter Giappone, Krista Bonello (University of Kent) Skepsi: Bad Behaviour in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Volume III, Issue 1, Summer (2010) Abstract The article addresses issues of ‘beyond text’ through a ‘poststructuralist’ reading of Shakespeare’s Richard III and Richard III. […]
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Her Works and Their Messages
September 8, 2011 By
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, a poetess and playwright during the tenth century, created a body of work that both reflected and instructed people in her society.
Staging the Unstageable: Performing the Crucifixion in Late Medieval and Early Modern England
April 22, 2011 By
Staging the Unstageable: Performing the Crucifixion in Late Medieval and Early Modern England By David Klausner Medieval English Theatre, Vol.30 (2008) Introduction: Through all his work on the editing of the Chester Plays and the county’s documentary records, his studies of the urban background to the Plays’ presentation, their theology, and their literary qualities, David […]
LE CINEMA A L’EPREUVE DES REPRESENTATIONS MEDIEVALES : L’ENLUMINURE ET LE THEATRE
May 18, 2009 By
LE CINEMA A L’EPREUVE DES REPRESENTATIONS MEDIEVALES : L’ENLUMINURE ET LE THEATRE Dragomirescu, Corneliu Studia Patzinaka, no. 7, 2008, pp. 25-58 Abstract Réaliser un film situé dans une époque historique donnée suppose un discours conscient sur le passé. Dus à l’ingérence des cinéastes sur le terrain de l’historien, ces films ont le plus souvent été […]
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