During the medieval period many towns across England saw travelling performers put on theatrical plays retelling stories from the bible. Such visits were often not just a social and commercial event "affecting a whole community and involving not only the spoken word, but also spectacle, music, and even dance"¹ but were a key element of the religious calendar for the community and an extension of the liturgy.

Such plays began as chanted Easter services in the 10th and 11th centuries, later becoming known as Passion Plays performed within churches, finally transforming into plays performed away from the churches and known as Mystery Plays and Miracle Plays of the 15th and 16th centuries².

Lydd, Rye and New Romney, were particularly popular for such performances with Lydd having its own performers and became a regularly stopping point other other travelling professional players and musicans from across the Country and at one point even had its own religious play 'The Interlude of Our Lord's Passion'3. From 1399 onwards parish accounts for the towns recorded plays occurring, with New Romney recording the men of Lydd visiting with their 'May and ours' in 14224. By 1490, this would seem to have advanced to the point where Lydd had its own play, with records talking of a St George Play in the town5. By 1553 the Marsh towns became so well known for their plays the Lord Warden's minstrels and even the Queen's Jester performed there⁶ and in 1590 one of the major acting companies of the age of the Shakespearean era, the Queens Men, visited the towns of Lydd, New Romney and Rye, between the 14th and 17th February of that year⁷.

References:

1: Answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/medieval-theatre

2: Answers.com : http://www.answers.com/topic/liturgical-drama?cat=entertainment & http://www.answers.com/topic/medieval-theatre

3: Book: Folklore of Kent, Fram and Geoff Doel, pg 84.

4: The Mediaeval Stage By Edmund Kerchever Chambers, pg 176 and 121.

5: The Mediaeval Stage By Edmund Kerchever Chambers, pg 224

6: The Cambridge History of British Theatre, Vol. 1, origins to 1660, Jane Milling, Peter Thomson, pg 122

7: The Queen's Men and Their Plays Door Scott McMillin, Sally-Beth MacLean, pg 179.

Last update: 14-12-2008 21:55