Highly allegorical, morality plays featured personified versions of evil and virtue battling for possession of a human soul. Characters were nonspecific and often not human. For example, in one of the earliest known morality plays, "Ordo Virtutum" by Hildegard of Bingen, 16 personified virtues such as Justice, Mercy and Chastity battled against the Devil through song and drama. The allegorical nature of morality plays allowed audience members to make connections to their own spiritual process, as well as to the sermons and scripture readings in church.
Actors performed amongst the spectators, usually in open areas where crowds gathered, including inns and town squares, using only basic props to help symbolize their characters. For example, in the morality play "Mankind" the character Mankind carries a spade, which would resonate with farming communities throughout Medieval Europe but also makes connections to mankind's finite time on Earth. (The spade is also used to dig graves). As the morality play form developed popularity, roving tribes of actors would travel from community to community to perform their dramas, and their mobility necessitated simple sets and props.
Morality plays served as a transition between the biblical mystery plays officially sanctioned by the Church and secular folk dramas. The allegorical stories of morality dramas always featured general Christian themes. But while religious dramas educated through stories of saints and Biblical characters, morality plays told stories of mankind and our earthy struggles, providing writers with more storytelling liberties and audience members with entertainment separate from the Church's desire to educate. Morality plays paved the way for the Interlude form, described as a "coarse farce."
"Everyman" (thought to have been originally translated from a Dutch play) is the most well-known morality play still in existence, though the author is unknown. In "Everyman," Death passes a message from God to the main character, Everyman, that his earthly life has come to an end. Terrified of dying, Everyman seeks a companion for the journey, asking various characters such as Worldly Goods, Beauty and Kin to accompany him, but only Good Deeds agrees to travel to the afterworld with Everyman.