Haller, 'Mysteries (Creation and Passion)', Bryn Mawr Medieval Review 9505
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmmr/bmmr-9505-haller-mysteries
@@@@95.4.10, The Mysteries (Creation and Passion)
The Mysteries: Creation. A New Adaptation by Bernard Sahlins of the
Medieval Mystery Play. Plays for Performance. Edited by Nicholas
Rudall and Bernard Sahlins. Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1992. Elephant Paperbacks
EL 412. $7.95
The Mysteries: The Passion. A New Adaptation by Bernard Sahlins of the
Medieval Mystery Play. Plays for Performance. Edited by Nicholas
Rudall and Bernard Sahlins. Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1993. Elephant Paperbacks
EL 414. $7.95
Reviewed by Robert S. Haller
Department of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
These two volumes contain the text of "The Medieval Mystery Play"
as performed at the Court Theater, Chicago in 1992 and 1993. The venue was
the Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus, whose Gothic
spaces struck the editors (who were also the producers) as most
appropriate for the presentation as they conceived it. The volumes
contain, besides the two performance texts, extensive suggestions for
those who would produce the plays themselves.
The title refers to "The Medieval Mystery Play" in the singular;
the introductions recognize that there was more than one cycle in Medieval
England, but the title indicates an attitude, which is that all the cycles
were one with insignificant local variants. The introduction acknowledges
the "Mysteries" as adapted by Tony Harrison and performed at the National
Theatre London[[1]] in three rather than two installments ("The Nativity"
"The Passion" "Doomsday"), and refers also to the many performances of
the cycle plays in England, characterizing them as antiquarian exercises.
The editors claim that they have cleared the smell of Yorkshire from that
version and have made something entirely American. In fact, the text will
strike most people unfamiliar with the original as some strange compromise
between Middle English and the modern idiom.
The texts themselves may be described as shortened versions of
plays selected from various of the cycles as modernized in recent
texts[[2]]. The eclecticism of resulting text reflects a similar quality
of the Tony Harrison text, and it is difficult to determine whether Rudall
and Sahlins used the originals, the modernized versions, or the National
Theatre versions for their own work. They do not acknowledge any source
text whatsoever, something that renders their text unusable in any
scholarly context. Their language is in many cases precisely that of an
existing published text, but for some lines they have replaced an obsolete
expression with a modern word or phrase, usually trying to preserve the
alliteration, metric configuration and rhyme scheme of the original. When
they have shortened a passage, they have tried to keep to the prosody of
the original, and transitional additions or eclectic passages are written
in imitation of the style of the Medieval plays.
The first volume "The Creation" contains abridged versions of Old
Testament plays on The Fall of the Angels, The Creation, The Fall of Man,
Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Isaac. It concludes with a Nativity play
based on pageants which in the original would have been concerned with the
Annunciation, the Shepherds, the Magi and Herod. The second volume The
Passion takes a different tack, as the authors tell us and can be
considered one continuous play, using parts of various cycle plays of The
Baptism, The Temptation, The Woman Taken in Adultery, The Conspiracy, the
Buffeting, The Appearance before Pilate, the Crucifixion and the Last
Judgment. The sections are easy enough to identify for those familiar
with the original cycle plays. The result is a drama of sufficient
continuity and interlocked themes to play without scene changes and yet to
preserve focus. There is much more original material (presumably written
by Sahlins himself) in volume two, taking the form of transitions,
commentary and dramatic additions. Since both volumes make a serious and
successful attempt to imitate the prosodic features of the originals
insofar as this can be done in modern English, the additions, when they
stand out, do so because they show no signs of the strain resulting from
trying to make modern sentences out of Medieval syntax. These passages,
to put the matter simply, are better written for modern speaking. They
also stand out because of differences in spirit and ideology. The editors
are not scholars of Medieval theology, and sometimes do not recognize when
they have written a passage that no Medieval writer could have written;
but such lapses are quite rare.
To give the play a unity, the authors have turned the story into a
continuous battle between the Angel Gabriel and Satan or Lucifer. Where
the originals have anonymous angels and devils, the authors have
identified Gabriel and Satan, so that the plays become a metaphysical
battle between the forces of good and evil for the control of mankind and
the determination of the outcome of salvation. Given the way in which the
plays are done, essentially two two-hour productions, this continuity
serves a genuine dramatic purpose. It incidentally highlights one
ideological aspect of the Medieval Mysteries themselves, their invocation
of the idea of the divine disguise, the importance to the economy of
salvation of Christ's assuming a human form that could deceive the devil
into believing that this man waking the earth could not be the Messiah nor
an avatar of God.
A medievalist has to regard these texts as adaptations, not
translations, and as not entirely representative of Medieval thinking or
of Medieval theatricality. The authors take it for granted that these are
"working class" plays and emphasize this fact in the performance and
production details. The same assumption seems to underlie the translation
and some of the additions to the plays. The authors quote approvingly
from Tony Harrison that you seek for "beer" rather than "champagne"
actors. They speak of looking for "found objects" as elements of the
stage business. The details surrounding the production--the costuming,
the music, the other details--are calculated to emphasize the amateur
quality of the plays and to involve the audience as equals in the
performance. There is a degree to which the authors conceive of the plays
almost as if they were done by Shakespeare's "rude mechanicals" of A
Midsummer Night's Dream, to be regarded with some of the same
indulgence which Theseus and his friends have to bring to their viewing.
There are, of course, many questions still about the how the
mysteries were performed over their long history. What might be
considered near to the modern consensus is in part reflected in Rudall and
Sahlins and in part not. We can be certain that the mode of production
with wagons or otherwise created little separation between the actors and
the audience, and we know that some of the plays emphasize this close
interchange. It is manifest that the writers and producers aimed at both
comedy and sentimentality. The so-called Wakefield Master's Cain and
Noah are used by Sahlins, and are notable for their taunting of the
audience and their domestic comedy. It is easy to see the sentimentality
of the Broome Abraham and Isaac, also used by Sahlins, and of the
Nativity scenes, relying on the appeal to homely emotions. What would be
certain as well is that the management of the stage business, the
machinery, of the originals would seem primitive and amateurish to us now.
Whatever devices were used to create special effects could be done much
better at present. We do not know how extensively the medieval audience
would have been impressed with what it saw on the stage.
The contention that these are "working class" plays should be
treated with caution. The guilds were the controlling organizations of the
city, and not only were some of them clubs for the wealthy, but any of
them would have had wealthy members who assumed leadership within the city
government. If there would from the outside be any opposition in these
plays, it would come from the Country or the Court, with the cycles being
perfect examples of urban culture. Of course the representations of
Herod, Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas are intended as satire aimed at the
Nobles and Magistrates and Prelates of the time. So, too, are the
portraits of the Shepherd's in the Wakefield Master plays where their
"grucching" and complaints about their lots in life reflect not so much
criticism of the wealthy and powerful as the metaphysical anxiety of the
unredeemed of whatever class. Eamon Duffy[[3]] has made us aware of the
degree to which these plays are a part of a sound and sophisticated
agreement on the basics between classes and between the learned and the
lewd. The fact that the Lollards may have objected to representations in
dramatic form of divine images, and the strong opposition of Protestant
leaders in the 16th century to the continuing performance of these relics
from Catholic times indicates the variety of points of view that could be
taken about the plays, and given the length of time over which they were
performed and the number of places, there could have been variations not
available in any records in the enthusiasm and skill with which the cycles
were performed.
In the context of courses in the literary or cultural history of
the Middle Ages, the cycles are excellent texts for teaching. Virtually
anonymous in their composition, learned in their intellectual base but
popular on the surface, making enormous use of the marginal texts we now
call the Apocryphal Gospels but making direct allusion to customs and
conditions of the time of their production, representative of the central
religious ideas of the times but defiant of solemn piety and willing to
depart from literalism for the sake of jokes and fun, they seem to give us
access to the urban culture of the times and to radiate out into ideas and
trends which give the feeling that appreciating these plays is also
understanding the common urban culture of their time. Middle English
cannot be performed as written, although Shakespeare can. The great plays
of antiquity are translated into modern English, but can be performed in
complete modern style or in a deliberately restored manner. The question
of performance style for the cycles in our time is still open.
Consider the range of possibilities for present day Biblical
drama. There are reverend and monumental plays written in the present
(the Black Hills Passion Play) and sometimes very much in the
modern idiom (Jesus Christ Super Star); there are movies attempting
to appeal to modern consensus Christianity (The Ten Commandments)
or to make a very modern theological point (The Last Temptation of
Christ). It seems difficult for us in our age to find the right level
of theological sophistication, modern theatricality, appropriate
authenticity as Biblical representation and appropriate relevance to
modern culture, in our equivalents of the Medieval Cycle plays. The text
and production which Rudall and Sahlins have published here is a tribute
to the widespread recognition that the Mysteries were in all respects
right for their time, and therefore ought to serve as the basis for
something right for our time. The plays can be produced with a sense of
pleasure and they do not mislead anyone about the intent of the originals.
But for a student who has not read a cycle play it is not quite a
substitute for the original. As cultural documents, they are more suited
to a course in Medievalism than to one in Medieval culture or literature.
The Mysteries #ZV4039, The Chester Purification and Doctors #ZV5242, Two
Mystery Plays form the York Cycle: The Resurrection and Hortulanus #ZV
5245 Beadle, Richard and Pamela King, Your Mystery Plays. A selection in
modern Spelling. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984
Brown, John Russell. The Complete Plays of the Wakefield Master.
London:
Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. 1983
Cawley, A.C. editor. Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays.
London, J.M.
Dent 1956. New edition 1974. Everyman Library.
Harrison, Tony. The Mysteries. London; Boston, Faber and Faber
1985 The Mysteries Part 1, The Nativity. Staged at the National Theatre
by Bill Byden; adapted from the English mystery play by Tony Harrison.
Films for the Humanities and Sciences 1993. 1 videocassette (133 min) The
Mysteries Part 2, The Passion. Staged at the National Theatre by Bill
Byden; adapted from the English mystery play by Tony Harrison. Films for
the Humanities and Sciences 1993. 1 videocassette (94 min)
The Mysteries Part 3, Doomsday. Staged at the National Theatre by Bill
Byden; adapted from the English mystery play by Tony Harrison. Films for
the Humanities and Sciences 1993. 1 videocassette (122 min)
Henri, Adrian. The Wakefield Mysteries. A modern adaptation.
Methuen Drama 1991 [Methuen Theatre Classics]
Beadle, Richard and Pamela King, Your Mystery Plays. A selection in
modern Spelling. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984
Brown, John Russell. The Complete Plays of the Wakefield Master.
London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. 1983
Cawley, A.C. editor. Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays. London,
J.M. Dent 1956. New edition 1974. Everyman Library.
Rose Martial ed. The Wakefield Mystery Plays. Garden City,. NY:
Doubleday and Co. 1962. Anchor Books 1963
Zytowski, Carl. The mysteries: a medieval triptych. Three music
dramas with an afterpiece for church performance. C. Zytowski 1990
NOTES
[[1]] Harrison, Tony. The Mysteries. London; Boston, Faber and
Faber 1985. Productions of these are available on videocassette from Films
for the Humanities and Sciences (The Mysteries. Staged at the National
Theatre by Bill Byden; adapted from the English mystery play by Tony
Harrison. Films for the Humanities and Sciences 1993. Part 1, The
Nativity.(1 videocassette 133 min); Part 2, The Passion (1 videocassette
94 min); Part 3, Doomsday (1 videocassette 122 min)).
[[2]] The following texts account for most of the language in these plays:
Beadle, Richard and Pamela King, York Mystery Plays. A Selection in
Modern Spelling. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984; Cawley, A.C. editor.
Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays. London, J.M. Dent 1956. New
edition 1974. Everyman Library; Rose Martial ed. The Wakefield
Mystery Plays. Garden City,. NY: Doubleday and Co. 1962 ( Anchor
Books 1963).
[[3]] The stripping of the altars : traditional religion in England,
c.1400-c.1580. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.