Nama:

 Satria
 Chaerul Akil
Kelas: 4AG2
Matkul: English Drama
Topic: Drama in The Middle and Modern Age

A. English Drama in The Middle Age

a. The Meaning & Origin of Medieval Drama
Medieval drama is the umbrella term for all kinds of theatrical performances that happened
during the Medieval period, also known as the Middle Ages, in Europe. This period began
during the late 5th century and concluded with the advent of the Renaissance in the early 15th
century.
Over the almost thousand years of the Middle Ages, there were significant developments in
the field of theatre. Beginning exclusively as part of religious rituals, Medieval theatrical
performances eventually grew out of the Church and found mass public popularity, coming to
thrive towards the end of the period.
Scholars agree that the earliest Medieval dramas appeared during the Early Medieval
period. Dramatic performances were held as a way for the Catholic Church to
enhance liturgical practices, particularly during religious festivals and on holy days.
The Early Medieval period, also known as the Dark Ages, began after the fall of
the Western Roman Empire in the year 476, liberating most of Western Europe from
Roman colonial control. The period lasted from the late 5th century to the 10th century.
b. The Types of Medieval Drama
 Liturgical dramas.
Liturgy consists of the rituals and practices performed in public religious worship, especially
those related to the Christian faith. This is known as liturgical drama.
Medieval mass services were created as a kind of ritual drama because most congregations in
Europe were illiterate. Therefore, watching interesting performances is key in involving
everyday people in religious practices. They served as an additional mode of worship during
Medieval mass services, and remain deeply integrated within the Church.
However, these were not the plays we know today. Rather, they were short scenes depicting
stories from the Bible that are performed alongside Church services, particularly on religious
holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
We can call these 'dramas' because they contained various recognisable dramatic elements,
including short dialogues, setting, exposition and character. They incorporated Latin call-and-
response chants that were sung between the priest and the congregation, the most famous of
which was 'Quem quaeritis', meaning 'Whom do you seek?'. This is often considered the
genesis of liturgical drama.
Liturgical dramas grew in popularity, length and sophistication, eventually reaching their
peak during the 12th and 13th centuries.
 Vernacular Dramas
Towards the end of the 13th century, increased public interest demanded larger locations,
moving performances from Church grounds to outdoor spaces. These plays no longer serve
exclusively as a part of liturgical services; instead, they were a form of entertainment for
excited audiences.
Churches relinquished control of these dramatic performances as they started to explore some
secular themes and, most importantly, began to be performed in the vernacular.
Vernacular is the term for the languages or dialects spoken by the common people in a
region, area or country.
By the beginning of the 14th century, liturgical dramas had evolved into vernacular dramas,
of which there were three main types.
 Mystery plays
Mystery plays, also called 'cycle plays', were large spectacles of performance that formed as
part of religious celebrations and holy days.
Instead of a single play, mystery play consisted of a series of small performances or contests
chronicling the spiritual history of mankind as told in the Bible, usually beginning with the
story of the Creation and Fall of Man and ending with stories involving the Last Judgment. .
Although mystery plays were performed primarily to glorify God, they tend to include
fictional and non-religious elements, sometimes even satire.
Satire is the use of humour and irony to criticise or ridicule public figures. Usually, these are
in the context of wider political events or systems.
Though cycles varied from town to town, they usually consisted of up to 50 pageants, which
often lasted a whole day, inciting much celebration on holy days. Pageant wagons (mobile
sets and stages with wheels) were paraded around the streets, eventually settling at marked
locations to commence performance. Audiences were free to roam around and watch
whichever play caught their eye, creating accessibility and involvement akin to some modern
interactive theatre.
Without Church involvement, production, organisation and funding fell under the control
of guilds.
During the Medieval period, guilds were groups of merchants or craftsmen who regulated
and taught their trades. They were usually wealthy and had significant influence and power.
 Miracle plays
Miracle plays were dramas that depicted the lives, miracles and martyrdom of
Catholic saints, often performed during religious festivals. They are sometimes called 'Saint's
plays'.
Saints were individuals in Catholicism that performed miracles, extraordinary events that
occur due to divine connection, during their lives. They usually died for religious causes,
becoming martyrs in death.
The most common subjects were Saint Nicholas and the Virgin Mary, both of whom had cult-
like followings in the Middle Ages. Medieval people strongly believed in the healing powers
of saintly relics, creating the perfect environment for miracle plays to flourish.
Plays usually combined factual and fictitious material to create a narrative that depicted
Biblical stories transposed into Medieval settings.
 Morality plays
Morality plays involved allegorical narratives that incorporated stories from the Bible,
primarily intending to educate audiences about making moral choices by using religious
reasonings.
An allegory is a symbolic narrative that conveys a secondary, more complex meaning.
These plays tended to follow a protagonist who, through his journey, comes to understand
morality, learning the difference between right and wrong. This hero was usually an
'everyman' who stood as a representation of ordinary people, making his story more relatable
and so crucial to the didactic purpose of these plays.
A key characteristic of morality plays was the inclusion of characters that
were personifications of religious concepts, abstractions or qualities.
Personification is a literary device in which abstract qualities are represented in human form.
Characters included virtues and vices, most often the Four Daughters of God, Mercy,
Temperance, Truth and Justice, and the Seven Deadly Sins. Throughout the dramatic
narrative, the protagonist encounters these characters who teach him important lessons,
guiding him to make more moral choices to reach salvation.
Audiences, too, were encouraged to take on the lessons imparted by these characters.
Morality plays, whilst still entertaining, were ways of educating ordinary people about the
importance of goodness in everyday life, rather than simply as abstract concepts.
B. English Drama in Modern Period
a. What Modern Drama Is
Modern English drama refers to plays written in the 19th and 20th century. It deals with real
situations: real characters, real incidents, the use of everyday language. It also deals with
common man, an ordinary man who suffers the difficulties of life. This type of drama is
called anti-hero drama. Why because there is no distinguished hero like that in Shakespeare’s
drama, on the contrary he/she suffers as other individuals who complain the same difficulties
of life.
The dramatists of the earlier years of the 20th century were interested in naturalism and it was
their attempt to argue real problems of life in a realistic technique to their plays.
It was Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist who popularised realism in Modern Drama. He
dealt with the problems of real life in a realistic manner of his play. His example was
followed by G. B. Shaw in his plays.
The modern drama has developed the Problem Play and there are many Modern Dramatists
who have written a number of problem plays in our times. They dealt with the problems of
marriage, justice, law, corruption, poverty, and inequality. Not only social problems are
shown in their writings, political and religious issues are also by so daring dramatists like
Ibsen and Bernard Shaw.
They used theatre as a means for bringing about reforms in the conditions of society
prevailing in their days. Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House is a good example of a problem
play. In it, the dramatist focuses on the fake relation of modern marriage. The woman’s place
starts to emerge gradually after a long year of exploitation and deprivation.
The modern drama is essentially a drama of ideas rather than action. The theatre is exploited
to spread a free expressions of real issues. With treatment of actual, the modern drama
develops its message to be drama of didactic purposes in addition to ideas.
A drama is striking, influential and real as it presents characters along with a natural and
credible aspects. Common themes in the new early 20th century drama were political,
reflecting the restlessness or rebellion of the workers against the state, philosophical,
investigating the who and why of human life and existence, and revolutionary, exploring the
themes of colonization and loss of territory. Henrik Ibsen is famously known as the Father of
Modern Drama, and it is worth recognizing how literal an assessment that is. He depicts life
as it is in its real features, thus he gets the approval of the modern readers and viewers.
The difference between ‘traditional drama’ and ‘modern drama’ is actually the theme and
style. Traditional drama dealt with Supernatural elements, Fate, Heroic deeds etc whereas
Modern drama deals with Realism, Absurdism etc. Some of famous Modern Playwrights are,
Henric Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, and the American modern dramatists are: Edward Albee,
Aurther Miller etc. Among them Henric Ibsen considered as “Father of Modern Drama”.
b. Characteristics of Modern Drama
There are some characteristics of modern drama. These are given below.
1. Naturalism
Naturalism in drama refers to an approach to literature and theater that emphasizes the most
accurate representation possible of real life. This movement emerged at the end of the 19th
century as a response to the romanticism and idealism that dominated literature at that time.
Naturalism holds that stories should reflect everyday life as vividly as possible, even if that
means exploring the darker and less pleasant sides of humans and society.
Modern Playwrights like Henric Ibsen show naturalism in their writings. As Henric Ibsen
showed in his A Doll’s House that women are always dominated by men and society as well.
2. Absurdism
Absurdism is a movement in art, especially in drama and literature, which explores the
ambiguity and meaninglessness of human existence in the world. This movement is often
associated with the works of writers such as Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, and Eugene
Ionesco. Absurdism developed as a reaction to the feelings of emptiness and chaos that
gripped the world during and after World War II.
Some characteristics of absurdism in drama involve:
 Existential Ambiguity: Absurdism explores the uncertainty and ambiguity regarding
the meaning of human existence. Philosophical questions regarding the purpose of
life, freedom, and justice are often emphasized, but definite answers are rarely given.
 Absurd Dialogue: Dialogue in absurd plays often does not follow conventional rules
of logic or grammar. Conversations can feel nonsensical, absurd, or without clear
meaning.
 Absurd Situations: The plots and situations in absurd plays often lack any clear
sense or connection. Characters may be trapped in strange, unexplained
circumstances.
 Abuse of Power and Authority: Absurdism often depicts power and authority as
unreasonable or even harmful. This could create an atmosphere that emphasizes
individual freedom and humanity's inability to cope with the chaos of the world.
3. Realism
The movement or style of representing familiar things as they actually are. Realism in the
theatre was a general movement that began in 19th-century theatre, around the 1870s, and
remained present through much of the 20th century. It developed a set of dramatic and
theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater reliability of real life to texts and
performances.
The main features of the theatre of Realism are:
 A focus on real life. The theatre of Realism investigated and spoke about real people
in everyday situations, dealing with common problems.
 An emphasis on behaviour and tough decisions.
 Believable dialogue,
 Common everyday settings are also characterized as important norms of realism.
The most remarkable themes of realism are:
 Close, detailed, and comprehensive portrayal of reality.
 Emphasis on appearance of what is real and true.
 Importance of character over action and plot.
 Complex ethical decisions are often the subject matter.
 Characters appear real in their complexity, behaviour, and motives.
The dialogue of the characters is natural, everyday speech. It is not heightened or exaggerated
for dramatic effect.
The dramatic conflict of a play arises from within the characters and the environment in
which the events of the play occur, rather than from some outside source or influence
imposed on the characters. The conflict is usually psychologically-driven rather than event-
driven, and the plot is often secondary to the internal lives of the characters. Realistic plays
afford the playwright an opportunity to address social issues. The protagonists of the plays
often assert themselves against an injustice that affects them personally and/or a segment of
society that the protagonist represents.
The process of playwriting, whether the dramatist is writing a realistic play or not, requires a
certain selection process.