Food Production in the Croxton Play of the Sacrament

Authors

Ernst Gerhardt

Abstract

The Croxton Play of the Sacrament stages a conflict between two food practices—the culinary and the ecclesiastical “making” of the obley and of the host. In its burlesque kitchen scene, the play stages its Jewish characters’ attempt to “unmake” the Host. The culinary implements and practices metonymically signal the obley’s own origins as a commercial product and good. Yet the play figures the Jews as inept and ironic cooks and bakers whose labor proves ineffectual. By staging such an ineffective “uncooking” of the Host, the play subordinates the physical and commercial nature of food production to the priestly making of the body of Christ.

Recommended Citation

Gerhardt, Ernst (2015) "Food Production in the Croxton Play of the Sacrament," Comparative Drama: Vol. 49: Iss. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol49/iss3/3