Medieval Theatre

The fall of the Roman Empire – marks the beginning of the middle ages. Roman drama proscribed by the church had come to an end. Actors would work alongside jugglers and mistrals. Actors in this time period were seen as the lowest of the low and were also seen as the worst thing in to happen to anyone and were despised by people in their society.

Medieval Theatre has really had an impact on modern day theatre due to the fact that it has introduced us to stage directions, it introduced vernacular (the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region). The term spectacle was introduced and it means “a visually striking performance or a striking display”. 

The staging for this era of theatre was more promenade based and for example if you had four small stages you would have four small scenes that all relate to the same play or devised piece and the audience would walk from stage to stage and gather the information from the play and the last stage they visit would often wrap up a conclusion as to what they have watched.