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A pageant wagon is a movable stage or
wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th century. These religious plays were developed from biblical texts; at the height of their popularity, they were allowed to stay within the churches, and special stages were erected for them.Nagler, A. M. ''A Source Book in Theatrical History.'' New York: Dover Publications, 1959. Print. Pageant comes from the archaic word for the wagon stage, "pagyn.” It is a word used to describe the movable stage on which a scene of the processional religious play was performed.Hartnoll, Phyllis. ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre.'' Oxford
church_ Church_may_refer_to: _Religion *__Church_(building),_a_building_for_Christian_religious_activities *_Church_(congregation),_a_local_congregation_of_a_Christian_denomination *_Church_service,_a_formalized_period_of_Christian_communal_worship *_Chri_...
es._The_dramas_began_as_a_simple_way_to_impart_the_message_of_the_Bible_to_the_people._They_then_grew_and_developed_their_own_conventions._They_brought_to_the_common_person_a_Medieval_pageant.html" ;"title="church_(building).html" "title="xfordshire: Oxford UP, 1983. Print. The origin of the religious play began in medieval church (building)">church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...
es. The dramas began as a simple way to impart the message of the Bible to the people. They then grew and developed their own conventions. They brought to the common person a Medieval pageant">pageantry and entertainment so necessary to relieve the people from the monotony of the everyday task.Cleaver, James. Theatre through the Ages. New York: Hart Pub., 1967. Print. During these monotonous times, in places like
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in the 10th Century, the church put on shows at their
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masses. Pantomimes would take place in the church depicting Christ’s Resurrection to the attendants of the mass.Fuller, Edmund. A Pageant of the Theatre. New York: Crowell, 1965. Print. A few centuries later in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
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(1377–1446) began to create theatrical depictions of religious texts and see them as a potential work of art. It wasn’t until 1493 however, that the Sacra Rappresentazione, an earlier form of the Mystery Play, was presented on a scaffold in the church in which “hundreds of lights encircled the ‘Throne of God.” This new form of spectacle based theatrical representation of both
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texts spread throughout
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. As the plays became more than mere pantomimes of biblical stories, they took on bigger texts and were performed at
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
, Corpus Christi, and numerous other religious saints days or feasts. As the drama of the production became more ambitious, the playing spaces also grew. The plays originally were performed on the
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...
of the church but grew to encompass the entirety of the front of the church. Eventually the plays grew beyond the capacity of the interior of the church and moved its front steps while also making use of the length and width of the streets. The performances sometimes even enveloped the public square just beyond the church steps. Since there was little space in these areas to provide a backdrop for scenery, the people created “mansions”, or wooden stages, on which to create the play. Eventually these stages would evolve into movable wagons as the troupes playing on them began to take their shows throughout the towns and play to different audiences.


Description

Very little is known of the specifics of the construction of the pageant wagon. Currently there are no clear descriptions of a pageant wagon to survive from the time when they were used avidly. However, we do have a few speculations on the construction of English wagons, but they are from a much later time than when pageant wagons would have been used. One such description comes from a late sixteenth- / early seventeenth-century manuscript entitled ''A Breviarye or Some Few Recollections of the City of Chester'' by David Rogers. It states that the pageant wagons were wooden structures with two rooms. They contained both a higher room where the play was performed and a lower room where the players changed clothing. The whole structure was mounted on six wheels. The entire structure would be 15 feet tall with the playing space being 9 feet above the street.Crabtree, Susan, and Peter Beudert. Scenic Art for the Theatre: History, Tools, and Techniques. Boston: Focal, 1998. Print. This follows along with a description from the memory of an
Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...
Robert Rogers who, in 1595, is quoted as saying ''"..pagiants weare a high scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four wheeles. In the lower they apparelled them selves, and in the higher rowme they played, beinge all open on the tope, that all behoulders mighte heare and see them."'' This description comes at a time when pageant wagons were seldom used anymore and is subject to reinterpretation by the author. In opposition to these descriptions,
Glynne Wickham Glynne William Gladstone Wickham (15 May 1922–27 January 2004) was a British Shakespearean and theatre scholar. Life Wickham was born in Cape Town, and was the great-grandson of William Ewart Gladstone. He was educated at Winchester College a ...
argues in ''The Early English Stages,'' that the wagon was only a one level structure taken up entirely by off stage space used for a dressing room. This would provide the backdrop for the performance as well. The acting would then take place on a scaffold alongside the cart or on the street. This description would testify towards how cumbersome it would’ve been for a multi-level cart to travel throughout the towns on such unwieldy streets. A cart closer to the ground would be significantly easier to manage yet might not have offered such a vantage point as a two story structure. A
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...
inventory from 1565 describes one such wagon as ''a house of wainscot painted and built on a cart with four wheels. A square top set over the house.'' It also should be of note that, in the majority of Europe, fixed stages were more common than wagons, and the sites of the fixed stages varied from place to place. In Rome the ancient amphitheatres were used, and in places like
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, France and
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in Germany,
town square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...
s were the primary
auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, communit ...
.Brockett, Oscar G., and Franklin J. Hildy. History of the Theatre. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2007. Print.


Pageant wagons in practice

When a processional cycle play came to town, the whole city was used as a massive auditorium as the wagons were moved through the main streets of the city. The wagons would stop at key locations, where the scene of each wagon would then begin. For instance, the starting wagon would take up a position before the
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
’s house and perform the first scene. When the scene ended, the wagon would move on to the next appointed spot and repeat the performance. Meanwhile, all along the predetermined route other wagons with their many varied scenes would follow in procession, each playing over and over its part in the slowly unfolding cycle. It was a chain theatre. It is said that the bigger wagons can be likened the elaborate floats in the
New Orleans Mardi Gras The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in all of Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (the start of lent in the Western ...
Parade. When in the country, the wagons were lined up in stationary ranks, and the audience moved from one to another to follow the cycle. The performers did not limit themselves to the small playing space of the wagon settings, but spread out freely onto the surrounding ground. Each wagon contained a setting and carried the
actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...
s to different scenes. As the actors moved, the members of the audience moved with them. In some cases simultaneous action occurred on a number of levels of wagon platforms. This offered the spectators a spectacle quite like that of a modern-day
three-ring circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicycli ...
. If a town had a large enough field nearby the wagons were sometimes set all in one spot as to minimize movement. No mode of theatre in the history of drama has ever occupied more territory. The Archdeacon Roberts is also quoted in the movement of the carts throughout the towns; ''"They begane first at the abay gates, and when the firste paginate was played it was wheeled to the highe crosse before the mayor, and so to every streete; and soe every streete had a pagiant playinge before them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the daye appointed weare played: and when one pagiant was neere ended, worde was broughte from streete to streete, and soe they mighte come in place thereof excedinge orderlye, and all the streetes have theire pagiantes afore them all at one time playeinge together; to se which playes was greate resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made in the streetes in those places where they determined to playe thire pagiantes."'' As the productions regarding these plays grew, towns all over Europe began to adapt and create productions of their own. The Europeans thoroughly enjoyed the elaborate spectacle, and each year they outdid themselves in the creation of such productions. It reached such a point that entire towns were in on the creation of these dramas, and specific guilds were created to devote themselves to the undertaking of the pageant construction. If performed today, this spectacle would tax the resources of any large country town. It would deplete most of the stock of a local
lumber yard A lumber yard is a location where lumber and wood-related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects are processed or stored. Some lumber yards offer retail sales to consumers, and some of these may also provide services suc ...
,
hardware store Hardware stores (in a number of countries, "shops"), sometimes known as DIY stores, sell household hardware for home improvement including: fasteners, building materials, hand tools, power tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing suppl ...
and
dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and forme ...
outlet. It would also require all the available
blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
s and
carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...
s to devote an entire month to the creation of the wagons.Simonson, Lee. The Stage Is Set. New York: Harcourt, Brace and, 1932. Print.


References

{{reflist Religious vernacular drama Wagons