Smoke and Mirrors Essay Example

propagated by Aristotle in his Poetics, in which he stated “The spectacle, though an attraction, is the last artistic of all the parts, and has least to do with the art of poetry.

The tragic effect is quite possible without a public performance and actors” (Gerould 51/Aristotle). This claim, however, fails to hold true for the theologically-grounded medieval drama of England, where spectacle was at the center of storytelling. In order to understand the importance of spectacle in medieval drama, one must first understand the historical context that gave rise to it, and the developmental role that the ritual of mass played in it’s growth.

The historical context in which medieval drama developed in England is an important factor for understanding the development of spectacle as a primary storytelling technique. As Christianity spread throughout pagan Europe in the early middle ages, there was a fair amount of resistance to ceasing the celebrations of their existing rituals.

So the church began incorporated pagan festivals into its own liturgical calendar, celebrating the resurrection in the spring in place of fertility and rebirth festivals, and Christmas in the winter to coincide with solstace holidays like Saturnalia, absorbing and mixing the pagan celebratory traditions with the Christian ritual of mass (Rea). This weaving of cultures not only helped develop long lasting Christian traditions, but also demonstrated the ability of the highly theatrical Christian rituals to engage a broad range of people thanks to the relative universality of it’s sensory-based experience.

The idea of spectacle in Christian ritual had been long instituted by the time it was spreading around Europe. In order to be the “visible reflection of the invisible world,” mass incorporated a

lot of theatrical elements to take patrons out of their daily experience and open them to transformation (Rea). Medieval liturgy regularly incorporated a wide range of spectacles to engage the senses: “a script of chanted latin, the smell of incense emanating from the thurible, the polyphonous sounds of the choir, the motions and gestures of the priest, and ultimately the transformation of bread and wine” all coincide to create a transcendental atmosphere (Carr).

Even the architecture and artwork all contribute to a shared journey, with every artwork, stained glass window, mosaic, statue, and relic inviting participation in the spiritual experience. The aim of these effects is certainly to create a mood of reverence and contemplation, but also to foster knowledge and the development of self. This focus on the sensory medium rather than on text and word make the experience significantly more accessible and universal to the masses, who are both illiterate and do not understand Latin, and these are the exact conditions from which medieval religious drama was born.

The desire of the church to educate its laity on Christianity was foundational for the development of medieval drama. The earliest form of what would become liturgical drama came in the form of tropes, the earliest being the quem quaeritis trope. A trope refers to the adding of a phrase or dialogue to the note of the last syllable of a sung word.

An example of this is the Alleluia during mass, where a scripture reading is sung as an extension of the note on the last syllable of Alleluia (Paul). Quem quaeritis refers to the new testament story where the three Marys go to retrieve Jesus’ body

to anoint it, only to meet an angel who informs them that he is risen (Paul). Tropes could be introduced as something the choir sings to occasionally ornament the mass, but many priests found that a spoken script lent itself well to the situation, and began to perform it (MacCall).

The quem quaeritis trope, as a cornerstone moment of christianity, was, “worthy of imitation for the strengthening of faith in the unlearned vulgar and in neophytes” (MacCall). It seems that the spoken dialogue and simple blocking were both much more helpful in discerning the narrative than the latin speech was. This quickly became a popular convention in English churches, and soon lent itself to other major Christian feasts, and eventually expanded to dramatize much of the liturgy, giving rise to the English medieval liturgical drama.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, the trope was expanded in both breadth of the liturgy that was covered, and in complexity of presentation. These longer, more sophisticated dramas were performed outside of the context of normal mass, though still presented in Latin by the clergy. They began to use larger sections of the church as playing spaces, and introduced raised platforms to act as scenery and more complex blocking, and even started introducing stage machinery to facilitate effects like descending angels (Rea).

The composition and expanding nature of these plays “came from the desire to fortify and clarify the faith of the believers, by representing in a show what was otherwise abstract and remote” (Pascall). Further pursuing its goal of being the visible reflection of the invisible, the physical performance of these dramas and enhancement of them through the use of visual

spectacle made what could not be read, and could not be understood in mass, accessible to much of the laity, which only increased the popularity.

By the end of the 12th century they were largely separated from the churches to be performed outdoors, which was more accommodating to the scale of the productions (Rea). Once this shift occurred, the presentation of the drama changed quickly and drastically towards more accessible, and more spectacle-based religious drama.

As drama left the church and moved into being performed in the public sphere, several changes occurred to the production structure. First, the productions slowly became controlled by the laity rather than by the clergy. Once this change occurred, the productions dropped the latin tongue for vernacular language (Rea). The amount of short plays produced increased as well, with stories stretching from the creation to the last judgement.

The demand for production quality increased, which led to the involvement of trade guilds in the building of sets and machinery for productions (Rea). The various trade guilds would support the production of plays most suitable to their craft, so the shipbuilders would build Noah’s Ark, and the “pinners” (or nail makers) guild would stage the crucifixion (“Theatre”).

Further, effects aimed at verisimilitude, or the appearance of realism, became a popular demand (Rea). Eventually, these short plays were collected into large cycles that represented the entirety of biblical heritage, and these became known as the mystery cycles (Rea). With this period of massive development, great strides were made in spectacle and effect production that were centerpieces of the productions.

Given the historical context of the development of medieval religious drama, one can see how the sensory experience

of these productions became central to the dramatic form. Despite the increased accessibility provided by the switch to vernacular language, sensory experiences and spectacle remained most important for the production of the story, as the goal was no longer simply to have people understand the stories themselves, but rather to understand the emotional and spiritual context in which the plays take place.

The focus was no longer on ceremonial observance, but on the recognition of divinity through being able to experience wonder through mechanics, and making what cannot be seen, seen through a sensory immersion. One of the primary ways this was done was through complex and often very symbolic staging.

There were several different staging conventions that were used through this period, but one that was fairly consistent was the use of mansions. Mansions were decorated platforms used to indicate a particular location (Rea). They could typically support properties or curtains when needed to support a reveal effect.

There were two mansion structures that were almost always present, particularly through the mystery cycles, which were the ones representing heaven and hell. Heaven and hell would be on either side of the stage, heaven would be to the east if that was an option, and the earthly scenes would be set in the middle of the two mansions, symbolizing the choices man can make. It was also typical for heaven to be raised on a scaffold (“Theatre”).

This was of course convention for the obvious symbolic reasons, but also played a very practical role. As special effects, and particularly ones that involved flying either live people or dummies in the air, became more popular, it became common to have

souls depart for heaven by flying, or to have angels descend from the heaven mansion. One example of this may have been in the The Valencia Assumption Play of the early-fifteenth century, in which the surviving stage directions call for the following sequence:

“When Christ has spoken, Mary shall fall into the

arms of the handmaidens as if dead (faent com es

morta). Meantime there is to be loud thunder, and

they are to place Mary beneath the stage (devall lo

cadafal). And they are to carry up the image (la

ymage) and say all the rest of the office” (Buttersworth).

The script here calls for a trap door (another common effect used primarily for sleight of hand in replacing people with dummies) to open and for Mary to climb inside of it as the dummy rises from it and ascends to heaven. Presumably this may also happen with a plume of smoke coming from the trap door to conceal the slight of hand, which was another popular effect to add to the verisimilitude of the experience. All of this is in the pursuit of creating an experience to match the divine and ungraspable.

Coming back to the idea of mansion staging, the hell mansion was designed to be the exact opposite of the heaven mansion: it was typically at ground level if not below stage level, and where the heaven mansion would have been decorated very well, with colors to represent piety and purity, the hell mansion would be dark and aggressive-looking (“Theatre”). On one noted production, the hell mansion was “made to look like a fortified town, an especially effective image when Jesus Christ forced open the gates to free the

captive souls.” (“Theatre”).

Depictions of hell were consistently very dramatic, often applying a myriad of special effects. When the entrance to hell was shown on-stage, it was shown in the form of the the Hellmouth. The Hellmouth would be a wooden statue of a monster’s head. Often the mouth would have the ability to open and close, and it would have the capability to blow fire and smoke from its mouth, and often it would have people inside it mimicking cries from souls of the damned (“Theatre”). One account of a Hell Mouth from an indoor performance in the Household of Miguel Lucas de Iranzo at Jaen in 1461 describes the following

“here then appeared the head of this huge

dragon (serpiente). It was made of painted wood,

and a device inside it (su artificio) propelled the

boys out through its mouth one by one, and it

breathed huge flames at the same time. And the

pages, whose tunics, sleeves, and hoods were

soaked in spirits (aguardiente), came out on fire,

and it seemed that they were really being burned

up in flames” (Buttersworth)

This account is particularly daunting, and demonstrates well how spectacle such as this may have been able to inspire some very real concern and self reflection. Keeping in mind these plays continued to be focused first on the divinity of Christ and salvation, this would be a sharp contrast, and most likely convey the fear that is meant to be instilled of hell better than any dialogue could. It is also interesting that while Hell’s entrance is very often featured in works like mystery plays, Hell itself is never actually shown.

One commentator notes that “offstage sounds from hell could enhance the unpredictability

of this visually and physically absent threat, thereby increasing a spectator’s anxiety” (Stevenson). Indeed, while the goal of much of spectacle has been to make the invisible visible, perhaps the absence of a direct threat and the general air of uncertainty around hell, particularly when all else is detailed and visible, does more for the intended effect of hell and provides the most verisimilitude towards the concept of hell than an actual depiction could.

One more very important convention for medieval drama and it’s spectacular nature is the pageant wagon. The pageant wagon was one of the main modes of presentation for the mystery cycles. The trade guild for each play would build a cart, referred to as a pageant, and it would be decorated and special effects would be added as necessary for the play it was presenting. The mobile stages followed a route around town where they would stop at designated locations, perform their play, then move on to the next one (Rea).

Spectacle was not only present in the performance of each play, but the entirety of the route was symbolic of a pilgrimage being made. There was spectacle in the journey of the pageant wagons into the city, as it was reflective of the journey of christ into jerusalem. The composition of the whole of the cycle, let alone the elements of each individual play, used visual, visceral mediums to create that opportunity for reflection, and chance to feel closer to God and the biblical stories in a way that could not be matched for the spectators.

There were a myriad of effects, tricks, sleights of hand, and other spectacles that were central to

medieval drama’s interaction with its audience. A rather unique feature of medieval drama is that at the time of performing it, it was never meant to be read, as there was no literacy anyway; that is the main condition that gave rise to it in the first place.

Medieval drama therefore cannot be evaluated on text alone, as the intention was for the dialogue to be presented onstage, in a fully sensory-based experience. Medieval English religious drama does then contradict Aristotle’s claim that dramatic effect is possible without performance, as the sensory component of this genre is far too central to the structure of storytelling to disregard.