Everyman Play Roles

Imagine having to literally walk into your own grave just because God told you to. Everyman has to do this in the English morality play Everyman, which was one of the many influential plays that were so common in the medieval theater. These plays were a part of daily life, able to be performed anywhere, anytime, and by anyone. Theater in the middle ages was largely used to influence the lives of common people by pushing them towards certain politicians or towards the Church, through plays such as Everyman.

In the middle ages, the church played a powerful role in nearly all aspects of life, including the theater. Immediately following the decline of the Roman Empire, plays were performed by traveling bands (Robinson). These bands were nomadic and would travel around to find work and a place to stay. The church, however, rejected this way of spreading plays and created their own plays about common bible stories (Robinson). The church controlled what would and could be in plays, and, initially, allowed it only in places of worship in order to gain more control over what could be displayed in an attempt to gain more hold over the commoners of the time (Robinson). The Catholic Church began allowing plays outside of cathedrals and other places of worship around 1200 AD when “[plays] were performed outside on occasion” (Robinson).

Once plays were being performed outside, they were usually performed during the summer and spring times (Robinson). This was because plays were usually outside in a literal sense, so any other time of year would have had inclement weather. In this case, plays were able to be performed in already existent buildings, but formal playhouses were not common (Symes 381). The church, however, still had a powerful h...

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...n the viewers of the play.

Morality plays like this one were the main teaching method of the time. They could reach out to many people and show them the “correct path” to take in life (Collins 880). The church used plays as a way to spread their message across great distances without having to go anywhere themselves. The church also was not the only group to use plays like this. Plays were also written for political and personal reasons, and largely used as propaganda (Symes 381). This effect was enhanced by the fact that any person could write a play and any person could act it out, from school teachers to political figureheads (Collins 882). These plays would eventually influence the playwrights of the Renaissance era who drew heavily from the pool of medieval examples (Symes 382).The many plays of the Middle Ages live on and influence entertainment even today.