Looking back: 2014 York Mystery Play Production

This was a wagon production, with the plays performed on pageant wagons wheeled from place to place along a fixed route. When each wagon stopped at the so-called 'stations,' its play was performed.

The production was pruned down somewhat from what it would have looked like in the Middle Ages - twelve plays were performed at four stations. The original play cycle had forty-eight pageants (or plays) at twelve stations. (Somehow, all forty-eight plays were squeezed into one day, beginning at dawn and ending around midnight.)

Nevertheless, the production gave a good sense of the demands and practicalities of wagon playing (you can read more about this here, although it is from a largely modern perspective instead of a medieval one!)

And there is more background information on the production here.

Much scholarly ink has been expended in wondering whether the medieval wagons were positioned end-on or broadside, and whether they were placed on the left or right side of the street. The latter question is, like many issues surrounding the plays, one that can be argued either way and probably never settled conclusively. But regarding the first question, it seems most likely that the guilds adapted the wagons to whatever best suited the demands of their particular play.

Plays that required a lot of scenery were probably played broadside, allowing the backdrop to be positioned at the back edge of the wagon, on display to the audience:

http://yorkmysteryplays.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/agony-in-the-garden-2010.jpg

(This photo, showing the Agony in the Garden, is actually from the 2010 production.)

Those that had little or no scenery could be played end-on, using the wagon as a thrust stage into the audience. This video is of the Crucifixion (played end-on). It shows how the cross was raised from the wagon floor into the upright position, using ropes and the tow-bar of the wagon as a hinge:

 The York Crucifixion play omits the two thieves and after looking at the video it is easy to see why; three crosses could never have fitted onto one wagon and the process of raising even one cross is complicated and somewhat dangerous! Having three crosses would only have trebled the difficulty and the risk.