medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

My feeling, though it's no more than that, is that early liturgical dramas need to be thought of as participatory dramas ie. there was not necessarily an external audience in the more modern theatrical sense, but nor was there 'no audience': the audience were the performers and vice versa, making it an immersive devotional experience.  I'd bet there's a theoretical literature on this somewhere, and someone on the list will know where.  I'm pretty sure I've come across work on later dramas by lay devotional confraternities which treats them in this way, and though I know it's not the same thing there are perhaps parallels.

Laura

Dr. Laura Jacobus

Senior Lecturer in History of Art

Birkbeck College, University of London

 

For details of my book on Giotto and the Arena Chapel see http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9781905375127-1

On 19 November 2014 15:18, John Briggs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I think as a general rule there would not have been an audience. There
is a complication that matins at Christmas would be a special event -
presumably matins would take place very early (midnight-ish - normally
matins at a secular
cathedral slipped very late!), but there could well have been
attendance by other
members of the 'cathedral community', which could be surprisingly
large. Are you sure that this "theatrical performance" is really
liturgical drama? And how late is it?
--
John Briggs

On 19/11/2014, Jason Burg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I am trying to find information on the office of matins in English
> cathedrals from about the 13th century until the reformation.  I am looking
> at a theatrical performance done in Lincoln cathedral at matins at
> Christmas and I am trying to determine if there would have been an audience
> for the event besides the men singing the service.  This affects my
> argument, but I have been unable to find any information or precedents for
> the public attending a matins service.

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