S1151541/B0201173 April 2014 Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned'? Get an original essay© Visalini S. Do not reprint without express consent of the author. The Fall of Man York Mystery Cycle (Play 5) Medieval Theater ConventionsLanguage and stagingThe Fall of Man was traditionally performed as part of a larger series of plays known as The York Mystery Cycle. Mystery plays were a great medieval tradition and were mainly used to bring religious messages to the common people of York in the form of a religious festival. These plays were written in the vernacular, usually translated from Latin, to allow for easy understanding by the illiterate audiences of the time. The most unique feature of these plays was the way they were staged. All 47 performances of the York Cycle would be performed on their own individual, mobile show floats. These floats moved processionally to each designated stop in the cycle (for example, past churches or markets) and plays were performed. In short, the show would move towards the audience, unlike many of the fixed morality dramas of the time. John Wesley Harris, author of Medieval Theater in Context: An Introduction, introduces the structure of the show's chariots as something that audiences should look up to (Harris 1992: 126). The floats would have two levels, the stage itself and the lower level where the actors would change costumes and store their props. So, once parked at street level, the audience is expected to look up at these actors giving them religious lessons, almost as if they were receiving a divine message from God. Additionally, Harris states that the actors hung clothes around the wagon so that the audience could only see the play from the front, shutting out the rest of the world and drawing the audience into the confined space where the play was performed. Cycling shows began as an expensive display of craftsmanship run by the city's various guilds. The guilds were enthusiastic about the competitions, but hanging over them was the threat of a heavy fine if they did not contribute or perform. (Davidson 2011) The show floats were maintained by the city corporations. Each float would be donated to the guild that best suited the show it represented and then they could display their wares in their performances. For example, according to Harris, the city's goldsmiths were commissioned by the Magi to show off their goldsmithing skills. The York Mystery Cycle, despite being part of a religious festival, would also be a showcase of the city's wealth and craftsmanship. The Intention of Medieval Drama“Medieval drama took many forms, but the most spectacular of all was the civic religious drama of cities like York... the entire history of the universe was presented, from the creation of Heaven and Earth until the day of universal judgment. Greg Walker, Medieval Drama: An Anthology. As the quote subtly suggests, the intent of a medieval work like The Fall of Man was simply to educate the masses about biblical lessons. York's plays, unlike most morality plays, were written in the vernacular to be accessible to the illiterate general public. The 48 sequential plays condensed all the lessons of the Bible into short acts that the audience could "digest" quickly and effectively. The lessons were usually the same: Don't give in to the seven sins. For example, in The Fall of Man, theOriginal sin is described as Adam and Eve betraying the word of God. The story then goes on to show how God punishes any man with a sinful nature. The lesson or moral of this story – God will punish a man if he sins – is then highlighted in the long sequence of plays, including The Last Supper, which allow audiences to cross-reference and corroborate the divine message among 46 other biblical stories . The staging of the opera is also fundamental to this educational impact on the audience. As already mentioned, the show float consists of an elevated stage platform, which makes the audience look upwards, as if in prayer. The biblical messages are then physically delivered to the audience from a higher source, unconsciously creating the illusion that the messages are from God Himself. This was another way to grab the audience's attention so that the message of each play could get through.Conventions of Epic Theater Bertolt Brecht's epic theater alienates the audience from the performance on stage. (Brooker 1994: 191) This estrangement works to the audience's advantage as it allows them to step back and think critically about the social, political and economic circumstances of the staged narrative and/or their respective realities. In short, the audience becomes a critical observer. One of the characteristics of epic theater is the Verfrumdungseffekt or V-effect, a theory that encapsulates Brecht's idea of ​​audience alienation. According to drama professor Olga Taxidou, the V effect can be achieved through different avenues such as theatrically explicit narrators, masks and music. These serve to disengage the audience from the performance on stage. This disengagement forces the audience to experience an empathetic distance between the viewer and the stage, allowing them to judge the characters objectively. The V effect draws the critical viewer's attention to the show's explicit theatricality, abandoning any pretense of realism and training the viewer to approach the show critically. Epic theater was traditionally performed indoors with a proscenium stage. This allowed for an element of physical separation between cast and viewers. The V effect, in my opinion, is most effective within a conventional performance space, such as the proscenium stage in epic theater productions. This staging allows the V effect to distance the audience from the show in question, thus creating space for the audience to think and reflect objectively on the issues raised in the show with reference to their world at large. The Intent of Epic TheaterEpic theater uses the stage as a place of instruction and education. It has an intellectual basis and deals with social or political issues of the time. Epic comedies are designed to shock and inspire thought. The ultimate goal of epic theater is to make the audience aware of their social environment and encourage them to take action to change society. Furthermore, epic theater uses the V effect to isolate the audience in order to trigger their critical thinking skills. In the case of The Fall of Man, performed in the epic tradition, the audience is forced to engage critically, examining and questioning the morality of the work. Instead of accepting the biblical story as an explanation of man's separation from God, the epic audience would instead question the story. Why was man punished for giving in to Satan's plan? Why didn't God protect man from Satan? How did Satan get into Eden? Where is Eden? These critical questions, while natural to the epic audience, undermine the purpose of the work. The moral of the work is simple: do not put in.