How did ordinary people cope with the long, dark nights of the Middle Ages? With no TV, phone or radio, English theatre emerged as one of their few outlets for entertainment - but where did it all begin?
Some argue that its earliest origins lie in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
Historian Marcus Ramshaw says: "That's quite a big first claim for Beverley."
Ramshaw uncovered a play from 1300 titled The Story of the Student and the Girl during his research for a book about the town.
He describes it as "the oldest piece of secular - that's non-religious - drama from the Middle Ages in all of Britain".
"It's a wonderful comedy which would have been probably told by minstrels," Ramshaw adds.
The play, which he compares to Benny Hill's bawdy comedic style, follows the story of a young student who fell in love with a girl who, of course, turned him down.
But how can he be sure that Beverley is connected to this early theatrical gem?
"We can tell partly because of the dialect in which it is written. It is an East Riding or an East Lincolnshire dialect," Ramshaw explains.
Minstrels were travelling entertainers who sang, played instruments and told stories in courts, taverns and town squares.
Beverley Minster has more than 70 medieval carvings depicting musicians playing instruments, adding to the town's connections to early music.
On top of this, the historian says he discovered an even earlier reference to a performance in the town.
In a religious history a young boy is described miraculously recovering after falling from the roof of the minster in 1215.
The boy had climbed the building in order to see a play about the resurrection.
"This is the oldest reference to theatre in the British Isles full-stop," Marcus says.
"I thought: 'Wow, that is a big deal and that deserves to be known'."
But, unlike from the statues of musician, the historian explains that there are only two surviving copies of the text from The Story of the Student and the Girl.
"It's astonishing that any of these texts survive Medieval plays because they wouldn't have normally been written down," Marcus says.
"It would've gone down as an oral tradition - people would've known their parts."
Both copies are in the British Museum in London, which were originally found by theatre historian Glynne Wickham.
Marcus says: "This play probably went on tour, probably up to York, maybe up to Durham.
"Just in the same way that a repertory theatre company would travel around today."
The Story of the Student and the Girl was performed in Beverley in January.
Dr Daniel Fountain played the minstrel in the performance.
"I love that Beverley has been connected with this first play," she says.
"It's one of those amazing discoveries... it's wonderful to be a part of that and make it available for the people of Beverley."