S1151541/B020117April 3, 2014Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay © Visalini S. Do not reprint without express permission of the author. The Fall of ManYork 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. The Mystery Plays were a great medieval tradition and were primarily used to convey religious messages to the ordinary people of York in the form of a religious festival. These plays were written in the vernacular, generally translated from Latin, to allow easy understanding for the illiterate public of the time. The most unique feature of these plays was the way they were staged. The 47 plays of the York cycle would have been performed on their own individual, mobile competition wagons. These carts would move in procession to each designated stop on the cycle (for example, past churches or markets) and plays would be performed. In short, the play would move toward the audience, unlike most stationary, fixed-set plays of the time. John Wesley Harris, author of Medieval Theater in Context: An Introduction, presents the structure of the show's carts as something that audiences should learn from (Harris 1992: 126). The carriages would have two levels, the stage itself and the lower level where the actors would change costumes and store their props. So, parked at street level, the audience should admire these actors giving them religious lessons, almost as if they were receiving a divine message from God. Additionally, Harris states that the actors would hang fabrics around the cart so that the audience could only see the play from the front, thereby closing out the rest of the world and drawing the audience into the tight space where the play was performed. The cyclical plays originated as an expensive demonstration of expertise managed by the city's various guilds. The guilds were excited about the competitions, but hanging over their heads was the threat of a heavy fine if they did not contribute or perform. (Davidson 2011) The competition carts were maintained by the city's guilds. Each cart would be donated to a guild that best suited the game they represented and they would then be able to show off their wares in their rooms. For example, according to Harris, the city's goldsmiths would be tasked with mages to show off their goldsmithing skills. The York Mystery Cycle, although part of a religious festival, would also be a showcase of the city's wealth and expertise. The Intent of Medieval Theater “Medieval drama took many forms, but the most spectacular of all was the civic religious drama of the cities. like York...the entire history of the universe from the creation of heaven and earth to the end of the world (was presented). Greg Walker, Medieval Drama: An Anthology. As the quote subtly suggests, the intention of a medieval play like The Fall of Man was simply to educate the masses on 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 audiences could “digest” quickly and efficiently. The lessons were generally the same: don't give in to the seven sins. For example, in The Fall of Man, original sin is described as Adamand Eve betraying the word of God. The story then goes on to show how God punishes every 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, allowing the audience to cross-reference and corroborate the divine message among 46 others Bible stories. The staging of the play is also crucial for its educational impact on the audience. As mentioned above, the pageant cart includes a raised platform for the stages, forcing the audience to look upward, as if in prayer. Biblical messages are then physically transmitted to the public from a higher source, unconsciously creating the illusion that the messages are coming from God himself. It was another way to grab the audience's attention so that the message of each play could get across.Epic TheaterConventionsBertolt Brecht's epic theater takes the audience away from the play on stage. (Brooker 1994: 191) This alienation works in favor of the audience because it allows them to step back and think critically about the social, political and economic circumstances of the story being staged and/or their respective realities. In short, the audience becomes a critical observer. One of the hallmarks of epic theater is Verfrumdungseffekt or Effect V, a theory that encapsulates Brecht's idea of ​​audience distancing. According to drama teacher Olga Taxidou, the V effect can be achieved through different routes such as theatrically explicit narrators, masks and music. These serve to disengage the audience from the play on stage. This disengagement forces the audience to experience an empathetic distance between the spectator and the scene, allowing them to judge the characters objectively. The V effect draws the critical viewer's attention to the explicit theatricality of the performance, abandoning any pretense of realism and leading the viewer to approach the play critically. Epic theater was traditionally performed indoors with a proscenium stage. This allowed for an element of physical separation between actors and spectators. The V effect, in my opinion, is most effective in a conventional performance space, such as the proscenium of epic theater productions. This staging allows the V Effect to defamiliarize the audience from the play in question, thereby creating a space for the audience to think and reflect objectively on the issues raised in the play in reference to its world as a whole. the theater uses the stage as a place of instruction and education. It has an intellectual base and deals with the social or political issues of the time. Epic pieces are designed to shock and inspire thought. The ultimate goal of epic theater is to raise awareness of their social environment and encourage them to take action to change their society. Additionally, epic theater uses the V effect to isolate the audience in order to trigger their critical thinking. In the case of The Fall of Man, performed in the epic tradition, the audience is forced to engage critically, examining and questioning the moral of the play. Instead of accepting the biblical story as an explanation for man's separation from God, the epic audience would instead question the story. Why was man punished for falling for Satan's plan? Why didn't God protect man from Satan? How did Satan enter Eden? Where is Eden? These critical questions, while natural for the epic audience, undermine the purpose of the play. The moral of the play is simple: don't question God's will. Unfortunately, due to the critical nature of the epic audience, God's will will be beautiful..