MEDIEVALISM AND MEDIEVAL THEATRE: About Adam

Abstract

Exploring the relation between medieval studies and medievalism, this article focuses on theatre in Europe and France. What are the relations between a scholarly knowledge of medieval theatre and the various reconstructions of medieval theatre to be found on the twentieth-century stage? To answer this question, this article studies different types of productions, from Gustave Cohen’s Jeu d’Adam et Eve staged at the Sorbonne in 1935 to the York Mysteries adapted in England in the 1950s and 1980s, as well as some modern texts that adapt or integrate medieval theatre, from Brecht to Novarina. It concludes by proposing a renewed approach to medieval theatre, especially from an editorial point of view.