Plays

This chapter discusses Christmas plays and playing in theatres and courts, streets and churches. As an embodied art form, dramatic performance is able to powerfully convey the central Christian doctrine that God was born into the world as a human being, the Word made flesh. The fleshiness of the dramatic form has made performances of the Nativity controversial at times. The chapter explores dramatic treatments of Christ’s birth, before turning to the festive and playful nature of the Christmas season. Christmas playing has often involved joyous interruptions to the regular routines and order of social life, such as in the Feast of Fools. In some plays, however, an outward appearance of festivity disguises a more troubling narrative. The chapter concludes by considering Christmas plays as ‘gathering time(s)’. Christmas brings people together; it also draws together memories of past celebrations and hopes for the future. The stage offers its own modes of gathering, for characters and audiences, to discover together what Christmas means to them.