The Second Shepherds Play was part of the Mystery/Cycle plays which were written during the middle ages between 14th and 16th century. This play took place in Wakefield, England and although Wakefield was heavily influenced by the Latin language, the play was written in vernacular English. Roman Catholic Church had a heavy influence on the people, country, its politics and controlled most of the plays that were produced in the 15th century, therefore the plays had a lot of biblical material in them to teach or instill religious principles. “The guilds had to maintain the text of their plays, and it is here that one may suspect that the Church (and the State) maintained influence on the plays.” (Happe, 21) These plays were organized into 25-50 lengthy cycles and were called the Wakefield plays, which were performed during the religious festival of the Corpus Christi. Based on various different sources, the pageant wagons were primarily used to perform the mystery/cycle plays including the Second Shepherds Play, while the scenic design helped tell the story of the play even further.
When these plays started performing, primarily they took place in churches since they were all religious plays, and they were funded by the guilds. Because most of the people who lived during the 15th century were illiterate, they heavily depended on the churches guidance, causing them to value their teachings. Since they grew up without any education and didn’t know how to read and write, primary source of their information and enlightenment was from the church. The only people who were able to learn and get education were the monks and priests, even the nobles and wealthy classes had as little education as the poor. The monks and the priests used this opportunity to teach the people though these mystery plays. It was their method of educating and enlightening people with their religious values and importance. But as the popularity of them grew, more and more people started watching them and their context changed based on what the audience favored. Eventually, the churches stopped producing these plays because they weren’t able to keep up financially and also considered them to have dubious religious values, so the plays had to continue preforming outside churches into the streets. These plays were generally performed on the pageant wagons which went from street to street to show their performance to as many people as possible.
The Second Shepherds Play is a play which takes place over the period of three days; on the first day, The First Shepherds Play is performed, on the second day, Second Shepherds Play, and on the third day is Crucifixion. The Second Shepherds Play is one of the only four surviving English mystery plays and it’s considered one of the best medieval drama, although it’s author is unknown, it is referred to as the Wakefield master. The Second Shepherds play among other mystery plays are also referred to as the Towneley Plays because they reside in the Towneley Hall.
Many elements had to come together to create an amazing performance of this play in the 15th century. One of the main elements which brought the play to life was the stage and the scenic design. When creating the rendering of the stage, I had to consider the space where this play was performed. The Second Shepherds Play was performed on the Pageant Wagons, and were rolled from one street to another with horses, to give everybody a chance to see the performance. Unlike regular stages, which were immovable and people had to gather at the theater to see it, pageant wagons were meant to roll from street to street and a lot of times these wagons would stop in various different stations including in front of the house of the people of importance, where the citizens gathered and waited to see their performances. Since the pageant wagons were made of wood, they “were expensive to make and maintain, and special arrangements had to be made for their storage.” (Happe 27) The financial needs of the wagons were covered by the guilds, but sometimes it was so expensive that several guilds had to share the same wagon. Since some guilds shared their wagons, they had to appear in different location at the same time, while they had their decorations around the wagon.
These wagons usually stood on either two wheels or three wheels, and were moved around with a horse. The wagons mostly had two floors, top with a stage where the performance took place and the bottom where the dressing room was, covered by a piece of fabric for actors to change into their different costumes. When I drew the rendering of the wagon, I took into consideration that the actors would need a lot of space underneath the stage to change into their costumes, therefore having a third wheel, which will require an axle, will undoubtedly take up a lot of space, hence restricting actors of their space. Consequently, I decided to give the wagon two wheels instead, for more space and better look. Some of the carts also required to have a third layer where the angels descended from, depending on the play being produced, to represent heaven but since The Second Shepherds Play only takes place in a field and at Marks house, there was no necessity for the third layer.
“The repeated requirement in the Wakefield Plays for the staging a journey with two distinct acting areas, at the beginning and at the end, suggests the use of more than one pageant and lays considerable stress upon the acting area between the pageants.” (Martial 34) Martial Rose clearly states that when the play took place in more than one locations, and their appearance was vastly different, they had to use more wagons for different scene. So, I decided to use two wagons instead of one, to show the different locations of the field where the shepherds talk and complain about their lives and the Maks house, where Mak lives with his wife and later on hides the stolen sheep.
When considering the props on the stage, we had to take in account that the stages weren’t big and didn’t have a lot of space for actors to move around, so a lot of storytelling was also stressed on what the wagon looked like. I put clouds on each corner of the back wall of first wagon to indicate the field and I laid hay in one corner of the second stage while putting a block for sitting in the back, to indicate that this was Maks house. I also left all three sides of the wagon open because the performances had people watching from all three sides. Some of the guild records indicate that they spent a lot of money on paint and carpentry, “which suggests that the carts were adapted to provide various kinds of framework for the actor.” (Happe 28) A lot of money went towards replacing and renewing the axles on the carts, and also, they often used the soap the grease the wheels.
The appearance of the Wagon was also very essential to create the world where the play took place. I used a lot of green fabric around the lower part of the wagon to indicate that the play took place in a small village surrounded by greenery. Also, the Shepherds spent a lot of time in the nature while Mak had a lot of hay in his house. “The appropriate and harmonious reinforcement of the spoken speech was in every detail of costume and setting. The ‘proprest and brightest colours serve the twin function of both delighting the eye and teaching through it.” (Wickham 82) Most of these productions also used live animals in their performances so I decided to have a live horse and a sheep on stage to indicate that they used lived animals, not wooden cutouts. I also indicated that they used small ladders to clime the stage because the stages were usually somewhere between 12 to 15 feet top to bottom, because they had to fit a person in the changing area as well as a person on the stage.
The acting in these plays were loved by the people. As these plays became independent from the church, more and more people started to find love in performing. The smallest cast for the play could vary anywhere from four to ten. “The acting needs to be bold, simple, honest and self-sufficient. Characters make strong entries and are explicit about their thoughts and feelings.” (Brown 3) A lot of times actors would address the audience directly and make jokes to establish a comedic quality to it, and also, they would instruct and give information about the play, as well as silencing them when needed. For the music, they used a drum or a wood wind instrument. These instruments “can accompany the various journeys and other appropriate music can represent the passage of time. “(Brown 4)
In conclusion, while making a rendering of the stage or a wagon accurately, we have to take into consideration many factors which come with it. Mainly what was the time period and what were the purpose of these performances. When I did my rendering, I did a lot of research on the time period in 15th century and mystery plays which were meant to educate the illiterate citizens about the values of the religion. After separating from the church, these plays continued performing on pageant wagons which rolled from one street to another with a horse and were somewhere 12 to 15 feet high. Upper floor was the stage while the lower was used as a changing area. A lot of these productions used live animals and required more than one wagons during different scenes in different locations.