Medieval Theatre Performance. Actors, Dancers, Automata and their Audiences ed. by Philip Butterworth, and Katie Normington

Abstract

Reviewed by: Medieval Theatre Performance. Actors, Dancers, Automata and their Audiences ed. by Philip Butterworth, and Katie Normington Eleanor Bloomfield Butterworth, Philip, and Katie Normington, eds, Medieval Theatre Performance. Actors, Dancers, Automata and their Audiences (Medieval Literature), Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2017; hardback; pp. 296; 11 b/w, 7 line illustrations; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781843844761. This is a vibrant and fascinating addition to the field of medieval performance. Engaging and enjoyable, the book consists of twelve essays prefaced by the editors' introduction. The latter makes clear that 'it is performance and not performance context with which [they] are concerned' (p. 1). This is both refreshing—in the scholarly canon, performance context does often overshadow the actual conditions of medieval drama—and brave: there is so much we do not know, and never can know, about the actualities of medieval performance. Claire Sponsler, whose essay opens the volume, begins by acknowledging the difference between '"What we know" and "What we do not know"' (p. 1). An awareness of this, together with the tacit realization that understanding of certain aspects of medieval performance remains irrevocably lost, runs through all twelve contributing essays, 'driv[ing] original research that […] lead[s] to significant contributions to knowledge' (p. 1). Brief synopses of each chapter are listed at the end of the introduction, which are very helpful for quick reference. The essays are weighted towards focusing on the late medieval period but are wide-encompassing in their scope. Discussions range from theatrical clothing and costuming (Katie Normington) to scenery (Nerida Newbigin), and from dancing (Jennifer Neville, Kathryn Dickason) and 'what happens' within medieval theatrical performance (Bart Ramakers, Tom Pettitt and Femke Kramer) to automata and animated statues (Max Harris, Leanne Groeneveld, Philip Butterworth). For this reviewer, the chapters on dance, probing the audience/performer relationship, and questioning when and how one becomes the other, were particularly innovative. The outstanding essay, however, is Claire Sponsler's 'From Archive to Repertoire: The Disguising at Hereford and Performance Practices'. Sponsler takes a post-positive approach, arguing that 'we can never know the "past" in its fullness or with any certainty' (p. 17). Yet, she argues, [End Page 152] 'that view does not prevent us from trying to understand the past' (p. 17). While fully acknowledging the necessity of 'tap[ping] as many sources of knowledge as possible […], whether […] written text, painted image, material artefact, oral testimony, embodied memory, or other means of transmission' (p. 17), she simultaneously raises the question of practice-as-research. Confronting head-on the concerns of some scholars regarding this—it does not fit easily within 'established research paradigms' (p. 31), applying methodology and rigour can be difficult, and some see it simply as 'fun' instead of 'serious' scholarly research—, she nevertheless argues strongly that investigating medieval performance practice in this way 'can expand our search for both fuller knowledge about early performance and for heightened awareness about the assumptions of such an attempt' (p. 34). This is a welcome endorsement and, it is to be hoped, one that will encourage exciting new forays into the performance of medieval drama and related theatre. Sponsler's chapter acts as a touchstone for the other eleven. Other authors frequently refer back to her, so that her work becomes a thread linking the chapters—disparate though they are in topic—and running through the entire volume. In a neat symmetry, the last chapter of the book—Butterworth's '"Ymage off Seynt Iorge" at St Botolph's'—both echoes and builds on Sponsler's suggestion that experiment and creative practice can be a useful way of advancing knowledge. Butterworth's chapter is an account of his liaison with Eric Williamson to draw up plans for 'a conjectured version' (p. 14) of the fifteenth-century semi-automaton St George and the Dragon. The diagrams accompanying the text are particularly helpful for visualizing and understanding how the model may have worked. Hopefully Butterworth and Williamson will one day have the opportunity to take this research to the logical next step, and produce a working replica of the automaton. This book will be of most interest, relevance and value to those working closely and in detail with late medieval...