Humour vs Terror in the Guild Plays

When confronted with a storyline containing a serious moral, what is the best way to capture and maintain an audience? All you need to do is embed a little comedy within the terror and you have got it made. The authors of the guild plays knew and demonstrated this best. Contained within the episodes are the perfect ensemble of terror and comical wit. The guild (or Corpus Christi ) plays were sombre lessons from the bible that were performed during festivals for the everyday people. Some are still performed to this day. It is this combination of fear and laughter that make these stories appealing to its audience even after hundreds of years. It is through the change in emotion that the audience maintains its enjoyment for they know not what to expect. The example to be used, N-Town’s The Woman taken in Adultery exhibits this quality with ease.
The juggling back-and-forth between evoking terror and then laughter is successful from the beginning of The Woman taken in Adultery rig...