This meeting explored the problematic relationship between texts which were ostensibly designed for performance, and actual performances. These difficulties are frequently acknowledged but solutions are rarely offered. The workshop sought to find ways out of this impasse by bringing together scholars of the written rite with musicologists, practitioners, researchers in medieval drama, and museum staff. All were involved in the preparation of a re-enactment that informed, and was informed by, discussion of the problems involved.

• How were texts used in performance?
• Are there manuscript clues to how rites were performed?
• How were liturgical rites understood by their various participants?

The workshop had two strands:

a) papers discussing these issues (see the workshop programme and the workshop report);

b) preparaton for, the performance of, and reflection on a re-enactment of the late medieval Sarum rite for the reconciliation of public penitents on Maundy Thursday in a late medieval church, St Teilo's. This re-enactment was filmed, and a copy of the film is available here:

Workshop report

Workshop programme

Images from the workshop