Medieval plays weren`t just passive entertainment-they required the active participation of an audience as much as its attention and beliefs. It`s fitting that ”The Mystery Cycle: Creation” (pictured here), which opens Thursday in a Court Theatre production, is as much a community as a theatrical event.
Performed by 14th Century ”mystery” guild members who traveled in pageant wagons to present colorful retellings of Biblical episodes, the cycle plays involved the audience physically as much as emotionally. So will the promenade-style Court venture, which traces the saga of creation from Genesis to the birth of Jesus.
According to Nicholas Rudall (who co-directs with Bernard Sahlins), ”We intend to make the event of creation happen in, around and above the audience. By enveloping the audience in music, dance and drama, they`ll be urged to move, to get close to the action, as if they were walking through a medieval village to see the pageant happen.
”Rockefeller Memorial Chapel was chosen because of its soaring pillars that dissolve into intricate masonry, its dramatic hidden passages and its Gothic-style architecture, appropriate for gathering hundreds of people in celebration.”
Patrons enter through the rear of the chapel, to be led by ushers to the performance area in the front. Stadium-style seating will cover the pews, with chairs placed on raised platforms along the chancel walls. Patrons can take a seat or join the promenade that follows the action.
The same spontaneity and intimacy that made the original Biblical tales feel literally life-size should offer modern audiences the kind of stake in the story that theater seldom permits. Audience members should dress comfortably. (Medieval attire however is unncessary.)
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”The Mystery Cycle: Creation” runs through Feb. 16 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.; 312-753-4472.
