Medieval Europe and Premodern Africa, Australia, and the Americas

Abstract

This chapter explores the re-emergence of formal theatre in Western Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire (and restrictions in Byzantium), with English monks performing liturgical drama and the Saxon canoness Hroswitha writing miracle plays in Latin. It considers vernacular biblical plays inside and outside churches, along with an early morality play by the nun, Hildegard von Bingen. It explores the full development of miracle, biblical, and morality plays with specific examples, plus various performance practices, including Jewish Purim plays. It maps distinctive premodern rituals and entertainments in Africa (Malawi, Ethiopia, Egypt, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe). And it considers the deep history of indigenous performances in Australia (with corroborees) and the Americas (in Adena and Cahokia cultures, ancestral Puebloans, Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas).