A Play for Everyman
[vc_row][vc_column][title type="subtitle-h6"]Emmett Mottl[/title][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="11/12"][vc_column_text]The collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the early 1990’s was heralded by many as the end of the massive geopolitical struggle between the democratic west and communist east. At the time of the fall, the defeat of Soviet communism was cheered as, “a momentous day, a triumph of freedom over totalitarianism, of peaceful protest over tanks and guns, of American values over the latent evil of the Soviet system,” and a blissful chance to begin the world anew (Ioffe). A day had come that just years before had seemed unimaginable, and its wake created socio-political change across the world and forced politicians to draw the maps again.It would not be out of place to compare the fall of the USSR to the multiple collapses of Rome (even without discussing the fact that Russia itself at one point laid claim to the throne) hundreds of years in the past. The Western Roman Empire, at the point of the early 5th century, had been decimated after decades of incompetent rule and economic mismanagement, ultimately falling to the many Germanic tribes it once held at bay far away in northern Europe. The fall of Rome in the west is a generally accepted starting point for what is now known as the Middle Ages, a thousand-year span of time filled with as many important, yet disparate, cultural, economic, and political changes as there are misconceptions about it.
[spacer height="20"]Very few people would be willing to say that the 1990’s were anything like the current decade, the 2010’s. Over the span of only twenty years, the cultural divide between now and then is so vast that individuals look back at it with a certain degree of rosy nostalgia (or contempt). And yet, as we are well aware of the sea change that is possible over just a few decades, much of the popular understanding of the Middle Ages is based on lumped together misconceptions and historical facts with little sense of the scale of time encompassed. Serfs and knights, which arose in the 11th and 12th centuries, are often-cited along with visions of macabre witch burnings, which were a product of the enlightened 15th century and beyond. While all of these are described as being ‘Medieval’ with a capital ‘M’, it never is quite clear exactly what being Medieval means.
A group of undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin- Madison is meeting on a chilled Midwestern night to make basic preparations for a performance later in the semester. The smell of coffee is thick in the air as we spread out on bean bags, holding half-read scripts in our hands while emphatically denying ourselves the privilege of indulging in the last donut. Our task is a holy one, but the conversation is anything but pious. We had just been assigned the task of staging a public performance of Everyman, a medieval morality play from late 15th century England. The anxiety of donning religious garb and preforming in front of our classmates hung before us as we tentatively divide out roles and phone numbers.
Christianity and theatre have a long history of flirtation and courtship, dating back to when the religion first anointed England in the 5th and 6th centuries. Mass, according to the doctrine of the Medieval Christian Church, was delivered in Latin to an illiterate audience whose vernacular was Old English- A mix of the language spoken by the original inhabitants of what is now known as the British Isles and the mother tongues of the Germanic tribes that colonized centuries later. The clergy was in the tenuous position of needing to follow the regulations of the Church while keeping mass engaging and fulfilling. Sarah Beckwith, a professor of English and theatre at Duke University, describes the religious ceremony of the sacrament and the notion of theatre as inseparable. In fact, Beckwith describes the situation rather dryly, writing, “priests were actors conjuring in apish impostures God from a cake,” which is perhaps the most succinct and sacrilege summary of Christianity to date (Beckwith 59). And yet, Beckwith is exactly right- The audience of the mass would only understand the words based on the performance of their priest, through whom they derived their understanding of Biblical stories. It was the job of the priest to nourish the souls of the flock by delivering mass effectively, but also to inspire a sense of awe and devotion in the assembled. Passion, death, rebirth, and spiritual salvation hold little weight with words alone, but rather, the church had to inspire through dramatic action to get a reaction.The Medieval Church was well aware of the importance of public spectacle. David Bevington, in his anthology of drama from the Middle Ages, writes that, “some members of the religious community urged that the Church’s own liturgy—especially the mass—contained in it an element of dramatic conflict,” which could be played up and used as a compelling way to inspire piety (Bevington 4). While it would not be accurate to say that Medieval Christian religious ceremonies were considered performances in the modern sense, the idea that scenes from the Bible, or all together new stories, could be acted out to enhance the understanding, opened up the door to future developments in which theatre served as a vehicle for public enlightenment.
One of the stipulations of our group performance was the requirement that it was played outside in a public space and widely promoted to the campus community. My heart raced for the very same reasons in which the professor had made the decision in the first place- The performance was intended to create a disturbance in what was otherwise a normal day. It was meant to be a spectacle, a blaring blister of something odd that would cause commotion and get the attention of passerby. This ran contrary to how I prefer to conduct my life, quietly blending in and observing the world without creating a stir. While it would be unlikely that we would inspire anyone to find God on a quiet Monday afternoon, we certainly would entertain them for half an hour.We, the Everyman Players, decided to maximize on our potential embarrassment by choosing the most public place we could imagine. East Campus Mall, a busy pedestrian street that runs through the heart of campus, would become our temporary alter upon which we would evangelize to the dazed and confused collegiate heathen. Rather than restraining our religious fervor to a mere corner, tucked away from interested eyes, we intended to use a wide swath of the quad to play our morality, moving from place to place and leading the compliant audience in tow.
As Medieval England developed, the line delineating who was responsible for maintaining Christianity blurred. The original sacramental theatre eventually led to the development of merchant guilds performing a cycle of mysteries, most famously in the city of York in the north of England in the late 14th century, as part of the creation of the Corpus Chrsiti, a cycle of plays that depicted the entirety of Christian history from the birth of Adam, the rebirth of Christ, and the impending last judgment (Bevington 227). Unlike the early sacramental theatre, the performances of the Corpus Christi existed outside of the grasp of the Church, and were instead produced, funded, and played by civic institutions and craftsmen.The Corpus Christi took the ideas of the sacramental theatre to the extreme. Over the course of a day, or perhaps more, the religious plays were performed around the city of York on top of moving carts that stopped in multiple locations and seemed to serve the sole purpose of creating as much of a ruckus as possible. With the privilege of hindsight, modern readers can easily imagine the excitement such a series of performances would cause. Corpus Christi pageants were, quite literally, the most interesting thing to do and something that was likely looked forward to as a break from the monotony of every day, Facebook-free life.York during the historical period of the Corpus Christi cycle had a highly regulated economic system of craft guilds that dictated who was allowed to produce and sell various goods in the city limits. The divisions were intended to promote fair trade and prevent any one guild from achieving the upper hand by leaching into the activities of other craftsmen. One notable example is the butchers, whose slaughter of animals creates many valuable byproducts that could be sold and thus increase the reach and profitability of the guild (Beckwith 50). Without regulation, the butchers threatened to wipe out the tallow-makers responsible for creating candles from animal fats and tanners that processed skins. In a move that would be considered government overreach in the England of today, the city government (who undoubtedly colluded with the mercantile guild), created a system of, “divide and rule whereby the artistinate were forced to compete with one another,” and thus defang any potential collaboration for mutual benefit that would be unfavorable to the powerful (Beckwith 50).Craft guilds were assigned plays from the Corpus Christi based on their trade, leading to interesting connections that may seem odd to the modern reader (the pinneres and painters, for example, were responsible for playing the crucifixion, during which nails are not put in a very positive light). By assigning performances to each guild, the society of York was able put together a large event, something worthy of civic pride, without the centralized expense of paying for the productions straight from the city coffers. Rather, based on the city records of the time, it appears that a system of fines and fees that regulated the trades of the craft guilds were used in part to pay for the mysteries. This had the added benefit of backing the trade rules with financial punishments, creating a system in which, “the Corpus Christi pageants are themselves the very mechanism for the regulation of labor, trade, and manufacture,” and used to justify the otherwise artificial divisions of the economy (Beckwith 53). Religious theatre, in effect, had progressed from bolstering the Church to cementing in the secular divisions of society.
The morality play Everyman tells the story of a wealthy man that is commanded by God to go on a journey to a new land. Everyman, naturally, is not inclined to leave his creature comforts and attempts to haggle with Death, offering, “a thousand pound shalt thou have, / and defer this mater till another day,” in a vain attempt to purchase more time to live (Lester 122-123). His attempt to buy life immediately identifies Everyman with the rich and powerful, those that seem to have strayed from the teachings of the Church in homage to their new god- Money. The language of deferment plays with the terminology of loans, the money lending that only prevents poverty temporarily and increases the debt to be paid down the line.Coming after the sacramental theatre and the prominence of the Corpus Christi cycle, Everyman is a play that is critically interested in the junctions between the Church, civic life, and the precocious position of the individuals caught in-between. Death responds to Everyman’s deal by pledging that he, “set not by gold, silver, no richesses, / Ne by pope, emperor, king, duke, ne princess,” reaffirming that all men are equal, and all men are sinners, in the eyes of the Lord (Lester 125-126). Perhaps most astonishingly, the wealthy and the powerful are tied together into the same lot as the corporeal leader of the Christian church, the Pope. Death’s point is meant to shock, and likely would have been very well received by a lay audience that was much aware of the excesses of the clergy. By naming their character Everyman, the author of the morality really does mean Everyman.As the play progresses, Everyman attempts to find friends for his journey to accompany him during his time of need. He asks all of those that he once held dear- Goods and Beauty, representing the glamorous trappings of life, both abandon him without hesitation. While sacks of gold and dashing good looks can accomplish much on the Earth, they hold little value beyond the pale. As unsurprising as this is to any good Medieval Christian, who were indoctrinated with the belief that a life of poverty and humility was to be aspired to, it serves to reinforce the point with a touch of dramatic flair.Curiously, Everyman is also betrayed by his friends and family. The reason for this is not immediately clear, but it does suggest that Everyman’s connections with others are entirely based on artificial grounds. When he asks Fellowship to join him, his friend promises to follow him if, “thou wilt eat, drink, and make good cheer, / or haunt to women the lusty company,” but refuses to take his hand in the dance of death (Lester 272-273). The play is telling the audience that friends cannot be counted on when the clock strikes midnight, and that their relationships are flimsy at best, despite the promises that may be made during times of calm. As incredibly isolating and depressing as this is, the morality ramps up the sorrow by having Everman’s Cousin feign a toe cramp as way of excusing herself from following him to his grave. A very lamentable social network indeed.
Most of the struggle of putting together a modern production of Everyman is finding ways to adapt it and make it relatable to the issues and concerns of an audience nearly 500 years removed from its first performance. A reimagining of Everyman was put on by the National Theatre in 2015 and envisioned the title character as, “a successful Londoner in a sharp blue suit, hedonistic, vain, self-centered, atheistic, but no more so than the rest of us. At his 40th birthday bash, surrounded by boisterous buddies, he drinks a dozen shots, hoovers up 10 yards of cocaine and then falls off the roof” which wonderfully speaks to the unique experience of living in the 21st century (Trueman 80). It is enough to make a medieval Englishman blush and a modern audience to silently nod in somber remembrance of benders past.
[spacer height="20"]The extreme lengths to which the National Theatre went to make Everyman relatable today illustrates the difficulty of repurposing the past. History and its byproducts are tangible, gooey things that we know and acknowledge but do not always understand. The problem, especially highlighted in Everyman, is our painfully apparent inability to emphasize with our progenitors. We can strive to learn of the historical context of a piece of writing or cultural artefact, but we remain forever removed from the unique emotional and social context of the original performance. While Ev, the surrogate for Everyman in the National Theatre reimagining, is obviously wealthy, there is nothing to support the reading that the original character was capable of imbibing in copious amounts of drugs.And that’s a good thing. According to a study conducted in 2007 that surveyed religious affiliation, “16.1% of Americans are "unaffiliated," with 1.6% being atheist and 2.4% being agnostic,” and represents a growing demographic trend towards forms of atheism strongly associated with millennials (Payne 676). Staging a performance of Everyman in a completely ‘authentic’ way, while inherently impossible, would fail to abide by the teaching of the morality drama. Rather, by using the general themes of the play, and refining the characters and message to be attractive to a modern audience, Everyman can continue to shock and awaken audiences- Just as the original sacramental theatre connected Medieval Christians with their faith, the modern retelling situates viewers in the context of current social issues. False friends and vainglory did not go away when frilly collars and swords went out of style.
The question of how to best deal with the theme of Everyman on a university campus lead our group to embrace a playful style, one that recognized our audience’s desire for a good laugh and our meagre budget of zero pence. Rather than attempt to modernize it, which another group successfully did with a different morality play from the period, Mankind, we decided to stick with the original language of the script and pepper in modern clues to keep the audience alert. At the point in which Everyman scourges himself in order to make penance for his sins, we elected to have the actor smash her actual phone against the grown repeatedly. Considering that cell phones are cultural avatars for our own person, and contain incredible amounts of life in a few hundred dollars’ worth of technology, the change made the audience laugh in recognition. While having our lead actor, Jamie Herb, pretend to scourge herself on a Monday afternoon certainly would have drawn attention, the scene would have been distant enough to not be relatable.While I cannot say with certainty if our performance helped anyone find God, the experience of putting it on helped me to contextualize portions of the 1,000-year span of the Middle Ages. Having been born in 1993, I did not experience the emotion of seeing the USSR collapse, and I’m even more removed from the human drama of Medieval European history. From my perspective, the best that I can do is study the past and attempt to learn about the social conditions that brought our civilizations to the state that they are now. And, much like the members of the craft guilds of York, I was an untrained student that was better suited at another trade, awkwardly put into the position of a divine messenger in front of an audience of friends and colleagues.
[spacer height="20"]I was performing because I needed to, hoping to have my, “accounts whole and sound,” as the Doctor urges all to do at the conclusion of Everyman (Lester 916). My reckoning is far less severe than what the title character faced (provided that my account does not stir pedagogical outrage), but my group and I needed to take heed of the message of Everyman. Perhaps the clearest takeaway is the role of formal authorities in providing guidance while serving as a moral compass. Everyman does not find his way to a peaceful grave on his own, but rather, is steered that way by figures representing the Church, such as Confession. It is only after he renounces his selfish behavior that he is accepted into grace. As a way of perhaps countering the balance of the Corpus Christi, “Everyman puts great stress on the institutional role of the Church in man’s salvation,” and insists that individuals need a guide to keep themselves spiritually refined (Bevington 939). One may be abandoned by their friends, but they cannot proceed alone.
Today, the gatekeepers of society are much more disparate and hard to identify than the seemingly straight forward connections we can make between the development of Christian theatre and the institutions that produced it. Social media and other forms of networking are rapidly changing the power dynamics and creating the potential for morality to be dictated by the people, rather than the powerful. The overt message of Everyman, which instructs all to be good Christians for the sake of their personal salvation, today reads more as a reminder of the importance of how each individual conducts their life. Everyone should be weary of the allure of vainglory and recognize that they have just one chance to live in a short chapter of a grander narrative. We will all have to pay our debts someday.[icon name="icon-key" size="large" color="" float="none" link="" new_tab="no"]
Works Cited
Als, Hilton. “The Night Crawlers.” The New Yorker. March 7 2016. Web. 1 May 2016.Beckwith, Sarah. Signifying God. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Print.Ioffe, Julia. "Russia’s Cruellest Month." The New Yorker. August 18 2011. Web. May 3 2016Lester, G. A. Three Late Medieval Morality Plays. London: New Mermaids, 1981. Print.Payne, Alan. "Redefining "Atheism" In America: What The United States Could Learn From Europe's Protection Of Atheists." Emory International Law Review 27.1 (2013): 661-703. Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. May 3 2016.Schulman, Michael. “Jacobean Chic.” The New Yorker. January 11 2016. Web. May 1 2016.Trueman, Matt. "Final Cut: Legit Review/London: Everyman." Variety May 5 2015: 80-1. ProQuest. Web. 1 May 2016[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]