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TICKETS ON SALE JANUARY 1, 2018

MARCH 20 - MARCH 24 | 7:30 pm | DAVID SPINKS THEATRE (W425 | University Centre for the Arts)

The final production of the Drama Mainstage season transports audiences 500 years into the past, showcasing two approaches to medieval plays. Everyone is invited to gather at the David Spinks Theatre March 20 – 24, at 7:30 pm nightly to experience A Barne in Bedlam: Two Approaches to Medieval Plays.

In medieval England, residents gathered during the feast of Corpus Christi to see a complete retelling of the Bible in short plays. These dramas mixed religious tradition with popular folklore and a surprising amount of humour. Audiences for A Barne in Bedlam will experience a setting similar to a town square that audiences centuries ago would have gathered in. It will be standing room only for a portion of the plays, an authentically medieval and barrier-free experience between actor and audience!

The first play, The Second Shepherds’ Play, is a Nativity play that begins with a satirical twist. A couple have hidden a lamb in a cradle and hilarity ensues as they pretend it’s their baby. “We have created a world on stage which blends beauty with grotesque, and myth with life,” says Houle. “The themes of the play draw from the humour of everyday life; the acting style is larger than life and highly physical.”

The second play, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, directed by Mia van Leeuwen, is a devised contemporary piece, borrowing themes from the original story. “We have taken the themes of the story of Adam and Eve, starting from the medieval text, and have devised a play that compliments the original story,” says dramaturg and Drama faculty, Justin Blum.

General seating