Dramatic activities which persist relatively unchanged over time, that is, in which continuity predominates over innovation in matter and performance, quality as "traditional", and range (to judge by the material included in Roomer) from seaside puppet theatre, through party pieces such as shadow plays, to adolescent "skits". Within this field there are traditions of dramatic activity which are closely linked to, and in content and/or performance significantly shaped by, the customs marking seasonal festivals, life-cycle celebrations, and the like. These context-specific activities may usefully be distinguished as "customary drama", as performance is, or is part of, a custom.
Since the demise of Frazerian survivalism has undermined the distinction between folk and other traditions in terms of (ritual) origins, this customary drama will also, for the relevant periods, encompass activities previously treated separately under the heading of theatre or pageantry: mystery cycles, masques, lord mayors' shows, royal entries. For the same reason, customs (notably the various forms of charivari) lacking the motifs essential for survivalist studies (death-and-revival, wooing) and therefore neglected in studies of folk drama, should also be included.
While "traditional drama", like party games, can occur within a fairly homogenous social gathering, in which the distinction between performers and audience is temporary, changing from item to item, and for the purpose of the performance only, "customary drama" invariably involves a structured encounter between two (occasionally more) distinct social groups who maintain their distinction throughout the observance, as well as the dramatic performance that it encompasses.
Within this redefined field of dramatic encounter customs, demarcations and analysis are feasible in terms of what can be termed respectively the sociology and the dramaturgy of the activities concerned. The social perspective encompasses the incidence of the observance, the identity of the parties to the encounter, and the motivation of the initiating ("active") group. Incidence can be calendrical, seasonal, biographical or sporadic, reflecting the desire or need to mark an important religious or secular festival, the completion of a pastoral or agricultural activity, the achievement of a new phase in the life cycle, the occurrence of an event or a situation meriting celebration or condemnation. The parties involved can be members or representatives of households (domestic or institutional), communities or associations (formal or informal), and the purpose of the active group in relation to the reactive group can be exaction (to achieve the redistribution of resources), interaction (convivial or mischievous), demonstration (benevolent or malevolent) or intervention (beneficent or maleficient).
The dramaturgical aspect is largely determined by the patterns of movement of the participatory groups, in relation to each other, and to relevant topography or architecture. When both groups are mobile, the encounter has the character of a collision, but these are more often the context for sporting contests than dramatic performances. When one group is mobile and the other stationary, the dramaturgy is determined by the distribution of these roles between the groups defined as active or reactive in the initiation of the custom (initiation not necessarily associated with movement). In the parade, the active group is mobile, and encounters the reactive by processing through its territory; in the interception, the active group is stationary, awaiting the arrival of the reactive group whose movement has purposes other than initiating the encounter. Both parades and interceptions occur outdoors and are largely independent of topography and architecture, except insofar as movement is determined by street plans and interceptions may make use of walls, monuments, bridges and the like. When one of the groups is inside, or significantly associated with, a particular building, the encounter can take the form of a visit, when the active group intrudes upon the reactive, or a reception, when the active group is in or at the building concerned, and initiates an encounter with an incoming group whose movement is for purposes other than customary observance.
Such distinctions may have their greatest value in sorting out the relationships between similar but distinct traditions. For example, while the mumming (of Newfoundland or Elizabethan England) and the mummers' plays share a seasonal incidence and house-visit context, they are from other perspectives quite distinct. The mumming involves convivial interaction between the parties concerned, the mummers' plays a dramatic performance, for the purposes of prompting largesse (exaction). This undermines the otherwise attractive thesis that a mummers' play is a mumming with a play inserted into it, and consequently that early references to mummers document the early history of the mummers' plays, or at least the customs out of which they grew, for which (this typology suggests) it would be better to seek amidst the gatherings of late medieval and early modern Christmas lords.
[Ron Shuttleworth Collection holds handouts.]