York Crucifixion

The York Crucifixion is a medieval drama, which was a part of a Mystery Cycle performed in the city of York. The Cycle was usually presented during the celebration of Corpus Christi and it was first performed during the late fourteenth century. During this time the use of pageant wagons had been established. Therefore, the York of Crucifixion must have been performed on the pageant wagon, which was a movable stage. This was efficient since the casts playing on the play could take the show throughout the towns and play to different audiences. Very little is known about how the pageant wagons were constructed. But some sources say that pageant wagon were wooden structures consisted of two rooms. One room was used to perform the play, and the other, lower room was used for the actors to change their clothing. The whole structure was built on the wheels and it was about fifteen feet tall. These wagons could be highly decorated and also might of contained machinery to create scenarios. They were owned by the guild. Each guild was accountable for maintaining the speech of its own pageant. The York Crucifixion play only had five characters: the Jesus and four soldiers. The actors were wearing the uniforms of ancient Roman military clothing. They wore armour, which was designed to protect them against being wounded in battle. The armour was made from overlapping iron strips that was flexible enough to allow them to bend. They wore a helmet, which was designed to prevent sword blows and causing serious head injury. The helmet had a guard that protected the neck from sword blows. This heavy uniform made it even harder for soldiers to lift the cross and drop it into its mortice. Soldiers in the play were represented as very noisy, busy and rude towards Jesus. They were engaged in workman chat: the dialogue they had with each other sounded very task-oriented. They looked enthusiastic and focused to get their task done properly and on time. None of the soldiers seemed to...