The Second Birth of Theatre

Mirosław Kocur

The Second Birth of Theatre

Performances of Anglo-Saxon Monks

Translated by Grzegorz Czemiel

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kocur, Mirosław, 1955- author.
Title: The second birth of theatre : performances of Anglo-Saxon monks / Mirosław Kocur.
Description: Frankfurt am Main ; New York : Peter Lang Edition, 2017. | Series: Interdisciplinary studies in performance ; vol. 8 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016054389 | ISBN 9783631679128
Subjects: LCSH: Catholic Church—England—Liturgy—History--To 1500. | Ritual— England—History—To 1500. | Liturgy and drama—History—To 1500. | Liturgical drama— England. | Performance—Religious aspects—Christianity—History—To 1500. | England— Church history—Middle Ages, 600-1500. | Monasticism and religious orders—History— Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Classification: LCC BX1973 .K63 2017 | DDC 271.00942/09021—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054389

Cover Image:

The Expulsion from Paradise. St Albans Psalter, p. 18. Dombibliothek Hildesheim, Hs St God. 1.
Courtesy of the Basilika of St Godehard, Hildesheim

This publication was financially supported by the University of Wrocław.

ISSN 2364-3919

ISBN 978-3-631-67912-8 (Print)

E-ISBN 978-3-653-07127-6 (E-PDF)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-70959-7 (EPUB)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-70960-3 (MOBI)

DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07127-6

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About the author

Mirosław Kocur is Head of Cultural Studies at the University of Wrocław and Professor at L. Solski Theatre Academy for the Dramatic Arts. His research focuses on studying acting techniques and reconstructing the origins of performing practices. He is the author of «On the Origins of Theater».

About the book

This book presents a new approach to early English theatre by exposing a genuine relationship between monastic performances and theatricality. It argues that modern theatre was reinvented in Anglo-Saxon monasteries by monks who were required to transform themselves by disciplining their bodies and performing complex religious acts. After extensively surveying the monastic and liturgical sources of theatre the author reconstructs the XII-century staging of the Anglo-Norman «Ordo representacionis Ade» and demonstrates the fundamental incongruity between the ancient and Christian performativity. On a more personal note he concludes with comments on references to the monastic rule in «Performer», a programmatic text by Jerzy Grotowski.

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Table of Contents

Abbreviations

List of Illustrations

Prologue: Cædmon

Part one: Monk as Performer

Monasticism

The Rule

Evangelization

Mynster

Regularis Concordia

Everyday Performances

Bodily Performances

Part two: Liturgical Performances

Christmas

Feast of the Purification of the Virgin

Lent

Palm Sunday

Holy Thursday

Good Friday

Easter Eve

Easter

Quem Quaeritis

The Second Birth of Theatre←5 | 6→

Liturgical Performances after the 10th Century

Performance Art of Anglo-Saxon Monks

Part three: Church and Theatre

The Clergy

Mass

Transubstantiation

Ordo Representacionis Ade

Towards Christian Performativity

A personal epilogue: Performer as Monk

Bibliography

Index

←6 | 7→

Abbreviations

• ASE: Anglo-Saxon England

• Bede, HE: Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1896)

• CCSL: Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina (Turnhout)

• CED: Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, eds. A.W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1869–1871)

• CHBT: The Cambridge History of British Theatre, ed. P. Thomson, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 2004)

• CHC: The Cambridge History of Christianity (Cambridge):

o 1: Origins to Constantine, eds. M.M. Mitchell and F.M. Young (2006)

o 2: Constantine to c. 600, eds. A. Casiday and F.W. Norris (2007)

o 3: Early Medieval Christianities, c. 600 – c. 1100, eds. T.F.X. Noble, J.M.H. Smith and R.A. Baranowski (2008)

o 4: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1100 – c. 1500, eds. M. Rubin and W. Simons (2009)

• CIC: Corpus iuris canonici, edition Lipsiensis secunda post Aemili Ludouici Richteri curas ad librorum manu scriptorium et editionis Romanae fidem recognouit et adnotatione critica instruxit Aemilius Friedberg, vol. 1: Decretum Magistri Gratiani (Leipzig, 1879)

• CNRS : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

• CS : Cystercian Studies Series

• CT 3.2: Corpus troporum, vol. 3: Corpus du propre de la messe, part 2: Cycle de Pâques (Acta Universitatis Stokholmiensis 25), eds. G. Björkvall, G. Ivesren and R. Jonsson (Stockholm, 1982)

• CSASE: Cambridge studies in Anglo-Saxon England

• CSEL: Corpus scriptorium ecclesiasticorum latinorum

• CUA: The Catholic University of America

• The Digby Plays: The Late Medieval Religious Plays of Bodleian Mss. Digby 133 and E Museo 160 (EETS ES 238), eds. D.C. Baker, J.L. Murphy and L.B. Hall (London, 1982)

• DNP: Der neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike, eds. H. Cancik and H. Schneider, 16 vols. (Stuttgart, 1996–2003)

• DTRB: Ian Lancashire, Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain. A Chronological Topography to 1558 (SEED 1) (Toronto and Buffalo, 1984)

• EDAM: Early Drama, Art and Music←7 | 8→