Two Medieval Morality Plays
BYU Margetts Theater, March 2002

I've flown into Provo from Japan for a few days of buisness, just in time to see these two wonderful plays. They alone made it worth the trip. I have never seen religious devotion and raucous humor mixed so well in my life. I am jet-lagged and it is late, but I need to write about the experience I just had.

The early 16th-century English morality plays taught religious principles to commoners who did not understand the Latin liturgy. Both plays feature a individual who interacts with the anthropomorphization of his/her own various virtues, vices, and attributes. Magnificence, the longer of the two plays, is also the funniest. It is about a young prince who is tricked by the vices to abandon his origional wise choices and become debauched. This results in the loss of his position, riches, and wealth, until Despair finally leads him to a cliff where he can end his life. At that point Hope steps in, explains the atonement to him, and reintroduces him to the virtues he had abandoned. The prince reforms. The vices provide the humor, introducing themselves to the audience through solo songs (including a rap by Counterfeit Countenance), and lustily ploting the prince's downfall (when they aren't fighting among themselves). In their fun, lines occasionally got muffled, but we got the idea.

The play was written by a tutor of young Henry VIII. He apparently intended to use both secular ethical criticism and a religious message to warn the king about his excesses. In a way it was a political satire. Skelton wrote it in verse, which Eric adapted into a mixutre of styles, including stately, modern conversational, and student slang. I didn't know you were a poet, Eric, great job. I especially liked the one that went something like:

Prince: I think I'm going to be sick
Courtly Abuse (female): Oh no, ick, ick, ick!

The second play (with all the same actors) is even more powerful. It is simpler and less raucous, but there are still plenty of laughs. God/Jesus mourns humanity's indifference to his sacrifice, and sends Death to do her job. (We've talked about the problem in depicting God on stage. In this case it works very well). Death confronts Everyman, played by cute-as-a- button Allyson Everitt, with her impending demise. In her search for companions to accompany her, Everyman transforms from a flighty, heedless undergrad to one who recognizes the emptiness of her previous life, and seeks to recieve Christ's grace. The repentance scene is both disturbing and powerful. As part of it, she confesses her sins to the Confessor (played by a bartender), and then receives the tools by which she flagellates herself. I assume that even for the author the act was supposed to be symbolic, not literal. Still, this was the one place in the play where we realized that the author was a medieval writer, not a contemporary Mormon. Except for that one scene (which again, was very powerful), everything in the plays spoke to me. They sermonized on all kinds of ethical shortcomings I have. They helped me want to change, to repent. It was didactic literature at its best.

The young actors (and the director Loraine Edwards) all did a wonderful job. They creatively conveyed the nature and personality of their characteristics through a variety of actions, ticks, accents, and even songs. The junkyard set, with the walls covered with both graffiti and iconic paintings, fit the tone of the works perfectly. The costumes and hair were eclectic and witty.

The plays run until March 30th. Hurry, hurry, go and see them. The small Margetts Theater allows all the audience to be at an arm's length from the actors. The audiance is encouraged to sit on provided cushions (I took two, a good choice), but if you ask they will provide you with a chair. There is period entertainment before the play starts, I'm sorry I came too late and missed it.

Honest to goodness, this was the most spirtually moving piece of theater I have ever seen. The only thing I have experienced that I can compare it to is the temple endowment ceremony. It felt like I was Everyman, taking part in a very powerful ritual, only one that also had very funny parts.

I interviewed for a job in Provo this week, which has a variety of pluses and minuses. The opportunity to see more plays by the BYU Theater Department will be a significant part of my decision-making calculation.

Andrew Hall
Provo, UT