Workshop # 1

MORALITY
Rising from the message of the mystery plays came the onset of the morality play. These plays were mainly focussed on the trials and a tribulation of mans day-to-day life and the moral decisions he had to make within it. One of the most famous Everyman, (c. 1485-95), tells the story of how God becomes angry at mans materialistic desires and pursuits and so orders Death to summon him. Everyman then goes on to try and find a companion for his trip into death. Appealing to such characters as Fellowship, Kindred and Cousin, he approaches Good Deeds, who does not offer to go with him but suggests his sister Knowledge. She takes Everyman through his journey to many other characters, until, the moral of the story is revealed when Everyman is left abandoned by all except Good Deeds.

Other well known Morality plays include The Pride of Life (c. 1410), Mankind (c. 1465), Hickscorner (c. 1500) and written sometime between 1400 and 1425 is

"One of the longest and best-preserved morality plays is The Castle of Perseverance. Like most morality plays, it takes a central figure who represents all of us, and confronts him (he is always a male) with a situation which involves a moral decision. The central character in The Castle of Perseverance is mankind"
http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/drama/moralities.html


Take 15 minutes to write a short script depicting your life. It does not have to be a biography, it could be a metaphore. Choose several people to portray this.