York Explore Library : Tue 24 May : 6.15pm – 7.45pm :

£6 each (or £5 with a Yorkcard)

This talk explores the modern tradition of York’s Mystery Plays with reference to their medieval counterparts. These devotional plays were suppressed in the late sixteenth century, revived in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, and are still a drawcard in 2016.

Do they remain ‘devotional’ plays? What place do they have in our ‘secular’ world? Margaret Rogerson will discuss the ‘then’ and ‘now’ of this form of theatre, drawing on primary sources, both medieval and modern, to answer these and other questions and explain the allure of the Mysteries for audiences past and present.

The earliest record of York’s Mystery Plays is dated 1377. Their last ‘medieval’ production was in 1569. In 1951, almost four hundred years later, was there another public showing­ – and since then the ‘show’ has gone on.

This lecture explores the modern tradition with reference to the medieval prototype. Many questions can be asked as we consider differences and similarities between ‘then’ and ‘now’ and ponder the value of these originally devotional plays in our ‘secular’ world.

Any play fits into and responds to its performance space.  Medieval performance was on moveable wagons in the narrow streets of York, and it worked effectively. Modern directors have shaped their shows to fit different spaces: the Museum Gardens, the Theatre Royal and the Minster as well as the modern wagon stages, which still use the streets but in ways that do not replicate their medieval counterparts.

Who first wrote the plays? How did medieval actors prepare? How did original audiences react? These questions can be answered from the surviving documents from York in the period of the plays’ first flowering and from recent academic research.

Aspects of the modern history of the York Mysteries have their own fascination, for example, the roll call of famous and up-and-coming directors and professional actors, including York lass Judi Dench, who played the Virgin Mary in 1957 and Robson Green, who was a not-so-popular Jesus in 1992. But this is a theatre that belongs to the York community and we must not overlook the dedication of local people, who have raised the necessary money, performed in the plays, directed them, made the costumes and props, and done so many other things to keep the tradition alive.

Bring your own questions to this event in the lead up to the Minster production that opens on 26 May.

There are 100 places available.  For booking information www.yortime.org.uk.