Our understanding of early play texts today depends not only on literary and archival research, but also on practical research — on the present-day live performance of early plays. Some early drama scholars call it “performance-based research,” since the revival performances can yield crucial insights on which to build our academic writing; some scholars call it “performance-as-research,” because they consider the performances in themselves to be equivalent to, and as valuable as, academic writing. If done right — and, most importantly, done well — these revival performances can bring a deep, personal understanding of early plays into, or close to, our living bodies and voices.

Below, this page includes information about (and links to) productions of early English plays that I have directed (for a narrative of my other work as a performer, playwright, and deviser, click here).

Mankind
(composed late 15th century; performed by PLS 2015-16)

Directed by Matthew Sergi and Ara Glenn-Johanson, with assistant direction by JP Faienza. Featuring Debra Stables as Mercy (2015 productions), Nicole Wilson as Mercy (2016 productions), Mandy May Cheetham as Mischief (2015 productions), Ara Glenn-Johanson as Mischief (2016 productions), Polly Phokeev as Mankind, Heather Sanderson as Nowadays, Cassidy Sadler as New Guise, and Tricia Postle as Nought. Stage management by Dawn Nearing; costumes and props designed by Linda Phillips.

In our touring production of the fifteenth-century morality play Mankind (click here to read the text in the original early English), we sang, ad libbed, and rollicked our way through medieval poop jokes, puppetry, and camp — and its misogynistic humour and performative masculinity — with a cast of six non-male performers.

at the Cloisters Museum (Fuentidueña Chapel), New York City: 23-24 May 2015
at the University of Toronto (Vic Quad, PLS Festival of Early Drama), Toronto: 6-7 June 2015
Click here for a fan video of the 2015 Toronto production.
at the University of Leeds (Beech Grove Plaza, Int’l Medieval Congress), Leeds: 6 July 2016
Click here for a teaser video of the Leeds production.
at Durham Town Square, in conjunction with the SITM/REED-NE Colloquium, Durham: 9 July 2016
Click here for photos of the Durham production.
at Queen Mary-University of London (Library Square, NCS 2016), London: 14 July 2016
as a co-production with Stan’s Cafe at their Courtyard @ A.E. Harris, Birmingham: 16 July 2016
at the Majlis Art Garden, Toronto: 29 July 2016—7 Aug 2016

Here’s what James Yarker, Artistic Director of Stan’s Cafe, had to say about our Birmingham showing of Mankind:

There was a good turnout for Saturday’s performance. This felt very successful. The show’s use of the space felt good and it was great having that shift because of the rain so we all got a different perspective. I found myself wondering if the original shows would have be announced in advance whether they would just have interrupted everyday life. Presumably we ‘should’ have been perched on anything we could find. The performance style felt very engaging, there was an edge given to it by not knowing what the etiquette of these performances would be and knowing that there was an improvisational layer to things, but there was a warmth to the performance that prevented it feeling scary. The use of language was rich and evocative, I loved the costumes, particularly the nightmare devilish creation. The musical elements were great. I very much enjoyed this show, I would love to see it again. I haven’t seen any other productions but this seemed to hit the mark of contemporary accessibility with the unfamiliarity of historic strangeness... So over all with this one, I think it was a tremendous success.

The Pride of Life
(composed late 14th century; performed by PLS 2016)

Directed by Matthew Sergi. Featuring Heather Sanderson as King Life, Cassidy Sadler as the Queen, Polly Phokeev as Strength, Ara Glenn-Johanson as Health, Nicole Wilson as Mirth, and Tricia Postle as the Bishop, with musical accompaniment by Gaven Dianda and Eleanor Verrette of Pneuma Ensemble, and a different person at every show as Death. Stage management by Dawn Nearing; costumes and props designed by Linda Phillips.

With generous support from the Connaught Fund’s New Researcher Award, we were able to add the fourteenth-century morality play Pride of Life (click here to read the text in the original early English) to our touring production of Mankind (see above), using the same troupe of actors, but this time for a play that only survives in a damaged, fragmentary manuscript. Rather than fill in the various holes in the script ourselves, we asked each audience to call out how they thought we should fill in the blanks—and since the entire second half of the play is missing, we let audiences direct us (in a structured improv) to determine how each showing of the play would end.

at Durham University (Joachim Room), in conjunction with the SITM/REED-NE Colloquium, Durham: 10 July 2016
at Queen Mary-University of London’s People’s Palace Great Hall (NCS 2016), London: 13 July 2016
as a co-production with Stan’s Cafe at their Theatre @ A.E. Harris, Birmingham: 17 July 2016
at the Majlis Art Garden, Toronto: 29 July 2016—7 Aug 2016

Click here for a compilation video of all four productions of The Pride of Life.
Click here for a compilation video of all four improvised “second halves” of the play from those productions.

When we presented Pride at the 700-seat People’s Palace Great Hall, part of the Queen Mary University of London campus (and of the New Chaucer Society Congress then being held there), our production style drew raves, including from Gail McMurray Gibson, one of the most preeminent scholars of medieval drama:

Your production of The Pride of Life was the most brilliant thing I have ever seen. I’ve been going to medieval drama since the medieval drama scholars’ Woodstock – 1977, the York Cycle — but this was the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen. I loved it. I loved what they did. I loved the mesmerizing way that the words that are there are repeated; the terrifying way that I realized ‘well, it’s one thing to be part of the audience of Mankind or Everyman,’ but to be Death, to be the one who decides who dies, I mean, that was brilliant. I just can’t tell you – I mean, it was fabulous. I loved it… It just blew me away… I could hardly breathe. I just thought it was so fabulous.

Fulgens and Lucres
(composed late 15th century by Henry Medwall; performed by PLS 2014)

Directed by Matthew Sergi. Featuring Don Johanson as Fulgens, Cassidy Sadler as Lucres, Chris Tsujiuchi as Joan, Marlow Stainfield as Cornelius, Austin Leggett as Gaius, Lauren Shepherd as “A,” and Catt Filippov as “B,” with musical accompaniment by Tricia Postle, Gaven Dianda, and Eleanor Verrette of Pneuma Ensemble. Stage management by Dawn Nearing; costumes and props designed by Linda Phillips.

A co-production with the University of Toronto Drama Centre in November 2014 (and staged with dinner provided) our production of Henry Medwall’s Fulgens and Lucres played for one weekend at University College’s West Hall (a beautiful space we got into at the last minute, but one whose acoustics turned out to make much of the performance barely audible, ruining all the comic timing!), and another weekend at the Drama Centre’s Luella Massey Theatre (with much better results). Even with its short university run, the production received a review — and a glowing one, thankfully of the Massey Theatre version — from Christopher Hoile at Stage Door:

While it is a text that can seem rather unengaging on the page, the new PLS production directed by Matthew Milo Sergi brings it so much to life that it should appeal even to those outside of academe... Sergi’s direction thus emphasizes that important side of early drama, interaction with the audience, that may be implied by the text but tends to lie hidden from readers of the text alone. If the servants are a bridge between the audience and the play, Sergi also uses them as a bridge between the present and the past... For anyone with an interest in early English drama, Fulgens and Lucres is a must. There’s no use waiting for the Stratford Festival to do it. In 60 years it has not staged even one pre-Shakespearean English play. Even the PLS has not staged Fulgens and Lucres since 1973. But, more important, what this production so ably demonstrates is that an early play like this, when well directed, designed and performed, can appeal to anyone who loves the theatre. Not only is this Fulgens and Lucres a window into the past but a joyful feast of entertainment for the present.

Beer Theatre (the Chester Shepherds and Innocents)
(composed late 15th or early 16th century; performed by Impact Theatre 2010)

In my earliest explorations of the records of early drama at Chester, I kept noticing how much money had been spent during biblical play productions… on alcohol. I ended up writing my first published article on the use of real food and drink in Chester’s biblical plays; during that process I collaborated with Melissa Hillman of Berkeley’s Impact Theatre to see how well the medieval play texts would hold up if the actors were performing under various states of inebriation. We recruited local performers for a whirlwind 24-hour rehearsal process, culminating in three showings each of two twenty-minute biblical plays from medieval Chester: the Shepherds and Innocents plays, once with the actors sober, once with them tipsy, and once with them absolutely plastered. The audience were invited to drink too — and they did. As it turns out, the plays were far better when all the actors were visibly tipsy than when they were sober (though they got a bit too sloppy in the third showings). My plan was to use feedback surveys and breathalyzer tests, alongside video documentation, for an in-depth study of the effects of alcohol on the plays in live performance, but since the directors were drinking too, by the end of the evening I had lost (or simply forgotten to gather) all of my data. All that remains is this archival teaser video (click here).