2016 staging of York Mystery plays

The York Mystery plays are being wheeled out once again - although for their 2016 staging they will not be performed on the traditional pageant wagons but in the cavernous nave of York Minster. They were first performed here in 2000 to critical acclaim, and next year's production looks set to be just as impressive.

For general info, details, lots of pretty pictures, and even (for English residents!) the chance to get involved, see the production's spanking new website: Mystery plays 2016

Moving the plays inside the church will make for some interesting dynamics, as they were never intended to be staged indoors. The 'stations' or stopping points on the original pageant route were all either in front of or very close to churches (they made handy landmarks), but the plays belonged very much to the streets and their urban setting.

The plays as originally staged can be thought of as turning the churches 'inside out' - turning the action, immediacy and emotional power of the Mass and liturgy into a more accessible form, moving the sacred from the bounds of the church into the secular world of the city. Now we are going the other way - the plays are moving into the church.

A ready-made theatre? The vast nave of York Minster

Holy Trinity Church, the first stop on the pageant route

And the famous octagonal tower of All Saints Pavement, right in the centre of the city, where the pageant route ended.

http://eng.1september.ru/2008/08/img10-1.jpg

Artist's impression of how the mystery plays might have looked as originally staged (this is the Trial of Christ play).

Ego sum Alpha et O: vita, via, veritas, primus et novissimus.

I am gracious and great, God without beginning,

I am maker unmade, all might is in me;

I am life, and way unto wealth-winning,

I am foremost and first, as I bid shall it be.

My blessing of blee shall be blending,

And hielding, from harm to be hiding,

My body in bliss ay abiding,

Unending, without any ending.

This is the beginning of God the Father's speech which opens the first play, The Fall of the Angels, and thus the whole play cycle.

The Fall of the Angels  l.1-9, from York Mystery Plays: a Selection in Modern Spelling, ed. Richard Beadle and Pamela King (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).