Valenciennes passion play of 1547 illustration by Hubert Cailleau
Featured in episode 53: Medieval Stage Effects
Hubert Cailleau was a stage designer and miniaturist working in the town at the time and he made sketches of the stage designs and they remain some of our best evidence of set design from this period. They show the different scenic three-dimensional backdrops that were used for the different locations in the plays. These locations stretched across the stage from stage right to left. Starting from stage right we have Paradise. This is a pillared portico type room topped by a large disc carved with an image of God on his throne surrounded by angles. Nazareth comes next, represented by a gateway in the city walls, with a low gate and fence in front, which creates an acting space in front of the walls of the city.
The temple is another portico room, but this one is topped by an ornate roof, coloured blue in the illustration. Inside there is an altar supporting the ark of the covenant, all of which is visible to the audience. Jerusalem is next, represented with a city wall and gate, but much grander than Nazareth. Next is the palace, which is perhaps the grandest building set on a high plinth with pillars and with a suggestion of gold trimmings and a throne fit for a king. The house of the bishops is another gate in a wall, but this also shows the representation of the top of a palace behind the wall, giving a real feeling of depth and a hinterland to the scenery. The same city wall continues to the golden gate, an imposing gateway with tall, sturdy looking doors. In front of this is a square patch of blue with a fishing boat sitting in it to represent the sea. Clearly this is showing a functioning pool of water. Limbo is represented by a prison building housing several souls awaiting judgement and finally on the far stage left we get to the gates of hell represented by a dragon’s mouth from which devils are exiting. Inside the dragon’s mouth people struggle to get out of a boiling cauldron and in the level of the tower immediately above this, two unfortunates have been strapped to a wheel. On the roof above them three dragons breathe fire, and all of this orchestrated by lucifer, who sits on another dragon above the whole scene.
