A Traditional Romanian Theatrical Performance at the Crossroads of (East-) European Cultures: Irozii - The Herods Play

Abstract

The kind of theatrical performance upon which we focus our attention in the present study brings together sacred and profane masks, characters coming  from the Christian tradition (present in the canonical texts of the Bible as well as in the apocryphal ones), characters who represent an image of a certain  social order on the one hand (the priest, the shepherds, the sacred family) and of a possible disorder on the other hand (the lunatic of the village, the devils,  the personification of Death). Taking into consideration the fact that the orthodox communities had difficulties in accepting religious theatre and that there  are interesting similarities between these performances and the catholic medieval mysteries, a few questions will guide us through the matter: Where are  these performances, mixing the archaic and the modern, coming from? Which are the links we can retrace back to the medieval religious theatre? And how  did the neighbouring communities, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Germans, Serbs influence the evolution of the Romanian Herods plays?