Poculi Ludique Societas
PLS, or Poculi Ludique Societas, the Medieval & Renaissance Players of Toronto, sponsors productions of early plays, from the beginnings of medieval drama (see mystery play) to as late as the middle of the seventeenth century. The group had its origins in 1964–1965 in a seminar on medieval drama conducted at the University of Toronto. For more than forty years, PLS was associated with the university's Centre For Medieval Studies (CMS), offering a regular schedule of plays every year. Now, as part of the Centre for Performance Studies in Early Theatre, PLS operates in affiliation with the  Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. PLS has toured in Canada, the United States and Europe. PLS also collaborates with the theatre history research project Records of Early English Drama (REED) at the University of Toronto. PLS Productions, 1964–2013. 1964 "Everyman" 1965 "Wit and Science" by John Redford; "St. George Mummer's Play"; Towneley "Secunda Pastorum" 1966 "Gammer Gurton's Needle"; "Mankynde"; "A Christmas Revelles" 1967 "The Play of David"; Coventry "Pageant of Shearman and Taylors"; "Ralph Roister Doister" by Nicholas Udall; York "Crucifixion Sequence" 1968 "Cambises" by Thomas Preston; "Like Will to Like" by Ulpian Fulwell; Towneley "Secunda  Pastorum"; Towneley "Cain and Abel, Noah" 1969 "The Digby Play of St. Mary Magdalene"; N-Town "Adoration of the Magi, Death of Herod"; Towneley "Slaughter of the Innocents", "Flight into Egypt"; Chester "Creation of the World, Noah's Flood"; "Hycke Scorner" 1970 "The Somonyng of Everyman"; "Planctus Mariae"; "More Dissemblers besides Women" by Thomas Middleton; "Mankynde"; "The Four PP" by John Heywood; Towneley "Prima Pastorum" 1971 "The Imposture" by James Shirley; "Johan Johan" by John Heywood, and "Once More" "Pericles" by William Shakespeare; "Lancelot of Denmark" and "Dame Sirith"; Three Towneley "Nativity Pageants" 1972 "Filius Getronis"; Towneley "Mactacio Abel, Noah ; Witt and Wisdome"; "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue" by Ben Jonson; N-Town "Assumption of the Virgin"; Towneley "Last Judgment" 1973 "A Re-enactment of the Coronation and the Mass of Henry V"; York "Baptism", "Temptation"; N-Town "Women Taken in Adultery, Colifizacio, Scourging, Crucifixion"; "The Franklin's Tale, The Washtub" 1974 "Fulgens and Lucrece"; Towneley "The Talents", "The Resurrection"; "Officium in Nocte Resurrectionis", "Music at the Time of Petrarch"; "Pierre Pathelin"; Towneley "Secunda Pastorum", York "Herod Plays" 1975 "Magnyfycence" by John Skelton; "The Sport of the Friar, The Sport of the Drunken Monk" by King Mahendra; "Arden of Faversham" 1976  Sampson Dux Fortissime; Bassingham "Mummer's Play"; "The Dance of Death" by John Lydgate; Towneley "Judgement" 1977 "Two Cain and Abel Plays" (Chester and Towneley); "Visitatio Sepulchri"; "Mankynde"; "The York Cycle" (48 separate pageants) 1978 "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare; "Johan Johan" by John Heywood; "The Dead Man", "The Hot Iron" and "The Stolen Shrovetide Cock" by Hans Sachs; "Nice Wanton"; "A Mummer's Play"; "A Renaissance High Mass" 1979 "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare; "A Winter's Revels"; "The Castle of Perseverance"; "13th Century Spanish Music"; "The World and the Child" 1980 "The Blessed Apple Tree ; The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare; "Robin Hood and the Friar"; Towneley "Murder of Abel", "Abraham and Isaac"; "The Brome Abraham" 1981 "Tom Tyler and His Wife"; "The Toronto Passion Play"; "Hyde Park" by James Shirley 1982 "Ralph Roister Doister" by Nicholas Udall; Towneley "Noah and Secunda Pastorum"; "Fool Surgery"; "The Pie and the Tart"; "Johan Johan" (puppet production); "Edward II" by Christopher Marlowe; "The Fleury Slaughter of the Innocents"; "Aminta" by Torquato Tasso 1983 "The Play of Daniel"; "The Chester Cycle of Mystery Plays" (24 separate pageants); "Wit and Science" by John Redford 1984 "La Calandria"; "Doctor  Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe; "Man's Desire and Fleeting Beauty"; Coventry "Christmas Plays" 1985 N-Town "Death of Herod"; "The Dead Husband" "The Comedy of Errors" by William Shakespeare; "The Towneley Cycle of Mystery Cycles" (32 separate pageants); "Wealth and Health"; Towneley "Nativity Sequence" 1986 "The Nun Who Left Her Abbey"; "Watkins Ale"; "Confessions of Rifflart"; "King John" by William Shakespeare; York "Nativity Sequence" 1987 "A Fourteenth Century Easter Matins" "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 1988 "The N-Town Pageants: A Medieval History of the World" (21 separate pageants); "Homo"; "Like Will to Like" by Ulpian Fulwell; "The Presentation  of the Virgin" by Phillipe de Mezieres 1989 "Gammer Gurton's Needle"; "The Quack Dentist" 1990 "The Feast of St. Ursula: Lauds and hymns of Hildegard von Bingen"; "Everyman"; "Jesuskind: Christmas Vespers and Procession" 1991 "A Looking Glasse for London and England" by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene; "Wisdom"; "No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's" by Thomas Middleton; "Jesuskind: Christmas Vespers and Procession"; "Youth" and "Hickscorner" 1992 N-Town "Assumption of the Virgin"; "Robin Hood and the Friar" 1993 "Le Jeu de Robin et Marion"; "The Widow's Tears" by George Chapman 1994 "The Digby Conversion of St.  Paul"; "A Mery Play betwene Johan Johan the Husbande, Tib his wife, and Sir Johan the Preest"; "A Yorkshire Tragedy" 1995 "Mankind"; "Occupacion and Ydelnesse"; Four episodes from the York Cycle: "Annunciation, Joseph's Troubles, Nativity, Shepherds"; "The Play of Daniel" (Joint production with The Toronto Consort) 1996 Three episodes from the York Cycle: "Fall and Expulsion, Temptation of Christ, Crucifixion"; "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare; N-Town "Trial of Joseph and Mary" and Towneley "Second Shepherds' Play"; "The Wandering Scholar from Paradise" by Hans Sachs 1997 The Joy of Sachs: "The Doctor with the Big Nose", "The Wandering  Scholar from Paradise", "The Stolen Shrovetide Cock"; Towneley "Noah's Ark"; "Gammer Gurton's Needle" 1998 "The York Cycle" (48 separate plays); Coventry "Shearmen and Taylors' Pageant"; "The Spanish Tragedy" by Thomas Kyd 1999 Chester "Antichrist" (modern-dress); "The Woman In the Moone" by John Lyly 2000 "Arden of Feversham" 2001 "Aminta" by Torquato Tasso (co-production with University of Toronto Graduate Centre for Study of Drama ); "The Conversion of the Harlot Thais" by Hroswitha of Gandersheim; "Robin Hood and the Friar" 2002 "Troilus and Cressida" by William Shakespeare 2003 "The Digby Mary Magdalene"; "The World and the Child"; The  Chester Shepherds 2004 "The Chester Antichrist"; "The Old Wives Tale" by George Peele; "Don Juan, Ladykiller of Seville"; "The Second Shepherd's Play" and "Officium Stellae" 2005 "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" by Robert Greene; "Joseph's Trouble About Mary" and "Jesuskind: Christmas Vespers and Procession" 2006 "Jesuskind" and "The York Nativity"; "King Leir", "The Famous Victories of Henry V", "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" (in association with Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men) 2007 "The True Tragedy of Richard the Third" (co-production with the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama); "The N-Town Parliament in Heaven and Annunciation  (co-production with SINE NOMINE) 2008 Ram Alley" by Lording Barry; N-Town Plays "Trial of Mary and Joseph" and "The Woman Taken in Adultery" 2009 "Clyomon and Clamydes" (co-production with the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama); "A Child Shall Be Born: Annunciation and Nativity Pageants from the Chester Cycle" 2010 "Inside Out: The Persistence of Allegory in Renaissance Performance" (co-production with the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama); "Chester 2010" (Chester Mystery Plays); "What Light Is This? A Medieval Nativity Pageant" (York Mystery Plays; co-production with St Thomas’s Anglican Church) 2011 "New Custom: A  New Interlude, No Less Witty than Pleasant" (co-production with the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama); "To Seek a Child" (Chester Mystery Plays; sponsored by Friends of the Creche at the Cathedral Church of St James) 2012 "Behold the Time of Mercy: Medieval pageants for Lent" (N-Town Plays; co-production with St Thomas’s Anglican Church); "A Christian Turn'd Turk" by Robert Daborne (co-production with Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies); "A Medieval Christmas: Go We Hence to Bethlehem’s Bower" (N-Town Plays; co-production with St Thomas’s Anglican Church) 2013 "Three Farces from  Three Lands" ("The Farce of the Fisherman" by Cornelis Everaert, "The Stolen Shrovetide Cock" by Hans Sachs and "Johan Johan The Husband" by John Heywood) 2014 "Fulgens and Lucres" by Henry Medwall