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The Play

About The Play

History

Some historians believe a Dutch monk by the name of Petrus Van Diest wrote Everyman. Others believe it was an earlier English play later translated into Flemish. Everyman was completed by 1495 but some form of it was probably around long before that. No one knows for sure.

There are almost as many versions of Everyman as there are books in which it is printed. Some interpretations were written in Middle English while others were in a homier, more naturalistic style. Some were composed in plain English while others were penned entirely in verse. Everyman has been translated into most languages and modified countless times.

My abridgment of Everyman has been revised in two ways:

Most of the original Roman Catholic dogma has been eliminated, partially because some of it is so dated. (For example: No body whips themselves anymore to show penance.) This newer interpretation is designed to appeal to a broader audience, regardless of their religion. Surprisingly, much of Everyman remains current. Everyman's attempt to forestall Death with money. Worldly Goods relating how it can be a negative or a positive in one's life. Knowledge's worried comments about false holy men. Who will be there and who will run out when the chips are down? These are issues and situations we wrestle with today.

This version of Everyman is for my miniature theater. Yes, it could be performed on stage or at a Renaissance fair but it would run approximately twenty-five minutes. (Fine for a situation comedy but too short for a night of live theater.) It also makes a fine closet drama, a play to be read rather than performed.

Stagecraft

No scenery or costume descriptions were included because Everyman has been performed in hundreds of ways over the past five centuries. Any setting is appropriate. It has been performed on temporary outdoor platforms, within churches and on traditional stages. It has been done with elaborate scenery, sparse scenery and no scenery whatsoever. The play has been set in Ancient Greece, Medieval Europe, the present day and, most popular in recent times, a dreamlike timeless world of abstract shapes and colors. Any setting is fine.

The Characters

Everyman's characters are symbolic stock characters:

Everyman (or, in a few cases, Everywoman when a female plays the lead) is the average person with whom the audience relates. In this adaptation, Everyman's whining has been diminished so he does not come across as such a crybaby. Acting styles have changed over the centuries. Audiences today prefer more natural emotions and less melodramatic histrionics. Also, as this version progresses, Everyman regains some of his dignity, especially after his meeting with Confession.

(Note: Anyone can play any role in Everyman. None of the parts are gender specific. Him and he can be easily changed to her and she.)

The Announcer is a herald or messenger, calling attention that the play is about to start. A necessity if Everyman was being performed outdoors and/or on a stage without a main curtain to be raised. Sometimes the Announcer was also given a bugle or a drum to get a rowdy audience's attention.

God is usually an older man (or woman). Some portray God as the Supreme Almighty while others see Him as a concerned parent summoning His child home.

Death is a fun character. Because he is following God's commands, some portray him as a soldier or as a middle-level public official. In classic mode, Death is seen as the Grim Reaper, a skeleton in a shroud carrying a scythe. Death is very businesslike and a little strident in his duties but he lets it slip that, while he plays no favorites, he wishes sometimes he did not have to take Everyman away. This gives him a touch of sympathy. If someone could outwit Death, you get the impression that he would not mind.

Fellowship is a braggart who immediately retreats from his pledge. He is a fair weather friend that will hang out with you at a bar... as long as you buy him drinks. Seldom are his promises any good.

Kindred and Cousin are comic relief. Kindred would gladly sacrifice his maid... or anyone else... to get out of the trip. Cousin fakes an injury for the same reason.

Worldly Goods is the most honest of the lot. It cannot die so it has no fear of God. It laughs because it is incapable of feeling Everyman's pain. It also makes one wonder who owns who in life. The big question is: What does Worldly Goods look like? Someone attired in gold? A banker? A pile of treasure and loot? Everyone has a different mental image.

Good Deeds is the only one who will go with Everyman into the grave. She is frail and neglected but regains her strength. Good Deeds has been portrayed as everything from a fairylike child to an aging, forgotten old woman.

Knowledge is the play's philosopher. He can be anything from a wizard to a college professor to a true friend standing by Everyman's side.

Confession is the symbol of earthly religion. Confession can be a priest, a pope, a minister, a nun, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk or any other member of the clergy. Whatever the audience considers a mortal holy man or woman to be, that is what Confession could be. He prepares Everyman by releasing him from sin. Later, Everyman goes for his last rites, maybe to Confession, maybe not. Confession is separated from final rites because Everyman should have been confiding in Confession for his entire life, not just at his death.

Beauty, Strength, Discretion and Five Wits are attributes of mankind.

Earthly Beauty, usually depicted as a beautiful but vain woman, is the first to go. She does not even want to approach the grave. When Everyman was first written, the average life span was thirty-five to forty years of age. Today, with our longevity increased to our eighties, physical Beauty would have fled long before any thoughts of the grave.

Strength can be depicted in a couple of ways, as either a man-of-war, ready to do battle in a militaristic style, or as a sportsman, like a football player. Strength would be in top physical condition. Today, Strength stays with mankind longer. Elderly people are more active than they once were.

Discretion is the trickiest of the three to depict. Discretion is the ability to make decisions for one's self. To trust one's own judgment. In a way, this is discrimination. Not all people become senile with age. Discretion can also mean the manners one presents to be socially acceptable. Some elderly people seem like public embarrassments to youth but that is not always due to the older folks losing mental competence. Many older persons deliberately throw away the pretenses they had when they were younger. They are not trying to impress anyone anymore and they have grown weary of the hypocrisy and games society play. Part of the problem is how younger people view older individuals. Youth's perceptions are often the ones awry instead. Besides, old folks can usually see though young people's tricks. They pulled the same stunts decades before and already know all the angles. Discretion is usually represented by a mannered, cultured individual.

Five Wits are the five senses: Hearing, seeing, smelling, taste and touch. Yes, they fade with time but nowadays they can be assisted with eyeglasses, hearing aids, etc. Everyman also would not want them working once he is dead and buried. Would you like to feel yourself helpless in your grave while worms consumed your corpse? No. Five Wits is usually depicted as a person with a large nose, big eyeglasses, etc.

Angel is a fairly straightforward character. However you see an Angel is how you would imagine this character.

Why is a Doctor the last character? Why not a priest or a minister? Because the soul has already left Everyman's body. All that remains is his lifeless corpse. A Doctor is the one who signs the death certificate. A mortician, a funeral director or even an old gravedigger could play the part.

A Personal Note

Maybe because I am of a later generation, I find one character conspicuously absent: Love. While Everyman's family would not go with him on his final journey, his Love for his wife, children, parents and others would volunteer to follow him into the grave and beyond. Love was omitted because Medieval thinking was that such earthly Love detracted from a complete devotion to God. I believe that such Love is a gift from God to be accepted with all of one's heart. Then again, I'm not five hundred years old so I do not think like the contemporaries of the writer of Everyman.

Mark Corrington