Aims

Themes explored in this module include:
- Performance (e.g. audiences, actors, staging, metadrama);
- Material culture (e.g. props, special effects, costumes, cosmetics);
- Dramatic representation of identity (e.g. race, sexuality, gender, class);
- Politics and religion (e.g. containment v. subversion)

This module takes a creative, imaginative, and practical approach to pre-1642 drama. Our focus on ‘stagecraft’ means that we will be investigating scenes from late medieval and Renaissance plays to see how they actually worked under the conditions for which they were written and how they might be performed today. We will explore how you can conjure up a devil onstage, what makes effective stage blood, and consider what it was like to see female audience members hijack a performance. Early drama was also a subversive medium of entertainment, and so we will be exploring the wider social and political ramifications of these plays: if an actor can perform royalty simply by putting on a crown, then what really is the difference between a stage-king and a real one? How can you get away with speaking blasphemy and profanity onstage?

Outline Of Syllabus

The texts studied in this module range from the late-medieval up until the closing of the London theatres in 1642. Rather than studying them in a chronological order, we want instead to think about connections across the entire period, engaging with plays according to shared themes (e.g. theatrical subversion, women on stage, saints and devils). While well-known authors like Christopher Marlowe and medieval plays like 'Mankind' will be making an appearance, this is also an opportunity for you to discover some less well-known plays like ‘The Knight of the Burning Pestle’ and ‘The Croxton Play of the Sacrament’.

This module will focus on the original staging of early drama while considering the possibilities for modernising performances. What sort of special effects were possible at this time, and how did the theatrical space help or hinder these effects? How are magic, horror, and racial or sexual ambiguity portrayed in these plays, and why? To help us answer some of these questions, we will explore and experiment with selected scenes during our seminars.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will introduce the students to key literary texts, key concepts, and critical paradigms. They will also provide textual investigations to help students with the language and close reading of early texts. As all the texts are dramatic, seminars will investigate the texts of these plays and their performance possibilities. These help to develop their communication and analytical skills. Study groups will help to develop students' teamwork, leadership and problem solving skills by taking it in turns to lead their group’s exploration of a scene or excerpt ahead of the seminar.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will be assessed by the submission of a mid-module essay and final essay. The mid-module essay (25%, 1500 words) will focus on close reading for the performance aspects of a single text. The final essay (75%, 2500 words) will focus on comparing a theme through two or more texts studied on the module.