History

It is ironic that the Church, which caused theatres to be outlawed as the Roman Empire declined and fell, was one of the primary means of keeping theatre alive through the Middle Ages. This resulted from the Church’s need to establish itself in the community (a community still steeped in pagan ritual and superstition which manifested itself in seasonal festival). The Church ultimately linked its own religious holidays with these seasonal festivals and began to use dramatic form to illustrate the stories underlying these holidays to reinforce their religious connation and better communication to stories to and illiterate congregation. At first the parts played in these simple religious re-enactments of the nativity and adoration of the Magi where played by priests in the sanctuary of the church. However, as the repertoire of the Church grew to include the passion and crucifixion of Christ , the church was confronted with the dilemma of how a priest should portray Herod. While division of opinion in the Church continued as to the worth of dramatic interpretations, the members of the congregation clearly enjoyed and were moved by them. The dramas continued to grow moving out of the sanctuary and into the open air in front of the Church. Ultimately, the members of town guilds began to contribute to these dramas, witch continued to grow more elaborate with time. Known as passion plays , miracle plays and morality plays, they continued their close connection with the Church and church holidays, but began to introduce elements of stock characters that were more contemporary in nature.

Passion play  Genre of the miracle play that has survived from the Middle Ages into modern times. Its subject is the suffering death  and resurrection of Jesus. Passion plays were first given in  Latin. By 13th cent. they included German verses and 200 years later the entire play was performed in German. Toward the end of the 15th cent. Passion play had become far more secular in content having been degraded in a religious sense through their contact with carnival plays. Their production was forbidden by ecclesiastical authorities and only a few were revived after the Couther Reformation. The chief survival among the passion plays is the one performed at Oherammergau in the Bavarian Alps. This entirely amateur performance has  been given every 10 years fulfillment it is said of a vow that was made during a plague. Passion plays have been revived in a few cities in Western Europe.   Miracle play Its plot was built around the lives and the works of the saints. They were usually performed on the saint’s feast day. Some of the scripts were biblical, others were not.

Morality play These dramas were based on the spiritual trials of the average man. They formed a bridge between the Medieval religious plays and the secular dramas of the Renaissance. The plays were allegories about the moral temptations which beset every man. The action was in every man’s soul. The action of the drama was the battle between good and evil to posses man's soul. Mystery play The plot and characters were drawn from the books of the Bible. It was the major form of medieval drama. The best examples are the cycle plays of England. The YORK CYCLE contained forty-eight short plays, and was performed over several days. Of the forty-eight plays from the York cycle, eleven deal with the old TESTAMENT, thirteen cover the period from the Annunciation to Palm Sunday, twenty-three cover the final week of Christ’s earthly life and his Assumption into heaven, and one describes Judgment Day. Pageant Today is a modern dramatic spectacle or procession celebrating a special occasion or an event in the history of a locality. In medieval times the word pageant had meant the wagon and the movable stage on which one scene of a mystery or miracle play was performed .The pageant was built on wheels and consisted of two rooms, the lower one being used as a dressing room and the upper used as a stage. The word also referred to the complex wooden machine-structures built for the Tudor masque. The modern form of the pageant came into general use in England and America since the production in 1905 of L. N. Parker’s Sherburne pageants in England. Pageants include such celebrations as the Mardi Gras and annual local festival.

Today

Today in Italy and in other European countries this tradition is still alive. Almost every town and village in Italy put on a show about the Passion, where the characters are not professional actors: they are faithfuls who want to carry on this tradition to celebrate Easter.

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