Hrothsvita’s Sapientia
PRESENTED BY: The Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players at Shepherd College
DIRECTOR: Dr. Betty Ellzey
SYNOPSIS: One of six plays by the tenth-century Saxon canoness, Hrothsvita’s Sapientia is set in second-century CE Rome. Sapientia and her three virgin daughters—Fides, Spes, and Karitas--have come to Rome to spread Christianity. When confronted by the Emperor Hadrian and his general Antiochus, the women defy the men and refuse to participate in the pagan rituals. The three daughters are tortured, feeling no pain due to the strength of their faith, and are eventually beheaded, but not before humiliating the male authority figures. They go to their deaths with unwavering courage. Sapientia buries her daughters with the help of aristocratic Roman women whom she has converted. At the end, she looks forward to her death and reunion with her daughters.
COMPANY BIOGRAPHY: The Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players is a theater troupe devoted to productions of early drama that are true to the spirit of the time in which these plays were first performed and are relevant to twenty-first-century audiences. The company is affiliated with the Department of English and Modern Languages at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and stages three productions a year. The Rude Mechanicals have been performing early drama (ancient Greek, medieval, and Renaissance plays) since 1996: over twenty Biblical plays (York, Chester, Towneley, and N-town); the morality plays Everyman, Mankind, and Wit and Science; Mary Magdalene; five plays by Hrothsvita; twelve Shakespeare plays; four Greek tragedies. The Rude Mechanicals have performed in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, California, Florida, and Washington, DC.
RUNNING TIME: 40 minutes
VENUE: Cat's Eye Pub
PERFORMANCE TIMES: Saturday June 6th at 12:45pm and Sunday June 7th at 1:15pm
DIRECTOR: Dr. Betty Ellzey
SYNOPSIS: One of six plays by the tenth-century Saxon canoness, Hrothsvita’s Sapientia is set in second-century CE Rome. Sapientia and her three virgin daughters—Fides, Spes, and Karitas--have come to Rome to spread Christianity. When confronted by the Emperor Hadrian and his general Antiochus, the women defy the men and refuse to participate in the pagan rituals. The three daughters are tortured, feeling no pain due to the strength of their faith, and are eventually beheaded, but not before humiliating the male authority figures. They go to their deaths with unwavering courage. Sapientia buries her daughters with the help of aristocratic Roman women whom she has converted. At the end, she looks forward to her death and reunion with her daughters.
COMPANY BIOGRAPHY: The Rude Mechanicals Medieval and Renaissance Players is a theater troupe devoted to productions of early drama that are true to the spirit of the time in which these plays were first performed and are relevant to twenty-first-century audiences. The company is affiliated with the Department of English and Modern Languages at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and stages three productions a year. The Rude Mechanicals have been performing early drama (ancient Greek, medieval, and Renaissance plays) since 1996: over twenty Biblical plays (York, Chester, Towneley, and N-town); the morality plays Everyman, Mankind, and Wit and Science; Mary Magdalene; five plays by Hrothsvita; twelve Shakespeare plays; four Greek tragedies. The Rude Mechanicals have performed in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, California, Florida, and Washington, DC.
RUNNING TIME: 40 minutes
VENUE: Cat's Eye Pub
PERFORMANCE TIMES: Saturday June 6th at 12:45pm and Sunday June 7th at 1:15pm