Staging the mystery plays

The individual pageants, or plays, of the mystery cycle were played on pageant wagons, which have been conjectured to look something like this:

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Each play (there are forty-eight in total, telling the story of salvation history from the Fall of the Angels to the Last Judgement) was taken over by one of York's guilds, who were then responsible for funding, staging, acting and costuming that particular play. Often the function of each guild would be mirrored in their play; thus the Vintners had the Marriage at Cana where Christ turns water into wine, the Pinners (who made iron nails) had the Crucifixion, the Bakers the Last Supper, and so on.

The plays were performed at various stops or 'stations' throughout the city (there were twelve of these). The pageant wagons therefore acted as movable stages and were trundled from station to station. The wagons look top-heavy and unwieldy, but modern productions of the plays have proved that they are both surprisingly stable and easy to manoeuver.  

Nevertheless, with forty-eight guilds each playing their play at each of the twelve performance stations, the production of the play cycle must have required herculean feats of organisation! 

The cycle of plays was performed each year on Corpus Christi, which during the Middle Ages was one of the biggest feasts of the liturgical year - probably due to the fact that it falls very close to midsummer, when people are in the mood for festival and celebration. English weather being what it is, this is also most likely why it was the feast to which the mystery plays (performed outdoors and needing sixteen or more hours of daylight) tended to be attached, both in York and elsewhere. The performance would have begun at around 4:30am and gone on to nearly midnight. Apparently the citizens of the Middle Ages had more stamina than we do today!

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Trial of Christ play (the caption of the image specifies it as being from the Coventry Cycle, but it would have looked similar at York)

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/resources/images/3592261.jpg?type=article-full

Herod and the Three Kings (York 1973)

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hHt1xHUPK8c/0.jpg

The Crucifixion (York 2012). Depending on the dynamics of the play, the wagons could be placed end-on or broadside. Most images (including the two above) show the wagon broadside, which makes the proportions of the playing space similar to a modern stage, but this one is end-on.

http://www.visityork.org/img/630/630_big_IMG_5854.jpg

 

 

Wagon on the move!