Fiction Book Review: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth.
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth tells the story of a troupe of actors in 14th century England who become involved in the murder of a young boy. As they investigate the crime for the purposes of producing a play based on it, they become increasingly aware of the inconsistencies that pervade the case against the girl accused by the authorities.
Barry Unsworth is often thought of as an historical novelist. In one sense the description is unarguable, since a great deal of his work is set in the past, for example in the late Ottoman Empire (Pascali’s Island, 1980), The Rage of the Vulture (1982), in the Atlantic slave trade (Sacred Hunger, 1992), in medieval England (Morality Play, 1995), in ancient Troy (The Songs of the Kings, 2002).
Morality Play. (1995) A novel by Barry Unsworth. Awards. The Man Booker PrizeBest Novel (nominee) It is the late-14th century, a time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young cleric, abandons his post in the church and joins a troupe of travelling performers. The players re-enact the murder of a young boy, but as they rehearse they discover the truth has yet to be revealed.
Unsworth has written his morality play from the viewpoint of the players and has produced a rich story indeed. It was very interesting to see a description of how the medieval audience would understand the part of each actor and how the players intended to be heard and seen.
The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term for dramas with or without a moral.
Morality Play. Author(s): Barry Unsworth. Location(s): England. Genre(s): Fiction, Historical. Era(s): Late 14th Century. Location. Content. It is the late fourteenth century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining.
Morality play definition is - an allegorical play popular especially in the 15th and 16th centuries in which the characters personify abstract qualities or concepts (such as virtues, vices, or death).