Medieval Drama c.1000 - c.1600

Medieval drama in Britain grew of out church services at Easter from the 10th century onwards. By the 14th century mystery cycles of plays based on the Bible were performed outside the church by members of craft guilds in cities such as York and Chester. Each play was staged on a pageant wagons that processed through the streets and stopped to perform at pre-arranged sites. In some towns, however, plays were acted in a set space or ‘place’ surrounded by fixed stages or ‘scaffolds’.

Although mystery cycles were suppressed in England during the 16th century following the Protestant Reformation, pageant wagons continued to be used in Catholic countries in Europe such as the Spanish Netherlands. In Brussels an annual procession or ‘Ommegang’ took place as illustrated here in The Triumph of Isabella from 1615. Here the performers did not speak but presented a ‘tableau vivant’ (i.e. a living picture) on the pageant wagons.