Plain-an-gwarry (theatre)

A 'plain-an-gwarry' (Cornish - playing place), an open air performance area used historically for entertainment and instruction. This plain-an-gwarry is in St Just in Penwith.

A plain-an-gwarry or playing place (Cornish: Plen an Gwari) is a Cornish Medieval amphitheatre. St Just in Penwith and St Piran's Round in St Agnes are two such examples.^[1][2][3] The St Just plain-an-gwarry is a large circular space, encircled by a 2 metre high wall of stone. There are 2 entries into the space.^[1]

The theatre area could be used for local gatherings, sports events, and production of plays. Cornwall culture had a type of play called miracle plays, written in the Cornish language, that would were meant to spread Christianity. To capture the attention of the audience, "the plays were often noisy, bawdy and entertaining."^[1]

The most important work of literature surviving from the Middle Cornish period is Ordinalia, a 9000-line religious verse drama which had probably reached its present form by 1400. The Ordinalia consists of three miracle plays, Origo Mundi, Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini, meant to be performed on successive days. Such plays were performed in a plain-an-gwarry.^[1]

Gallery

• 

  Field at Playing Place, the site of the plain-an-gwarry that gave the village of Playing Place its name. Playing place being the English translation from the Cornish/Kernewek plain-an-gwarry.

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  Playing Place plaque that acknowledges the plain-an-gwarry, or playing place, site for which the village was named. It specifically refers to performances about Saint Kea

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  The opening verses of Origo Mundi, the first play of the Ordinalia (the magnum opus of mediaeval Cornish literature), written by an unknown monk in the late 14th century

See also

• Christianity in Cornwall
• Cornish literature

References