AS Ellie Jackson’s Eve prepared to take her fateful first bite of an apple given to her by the snake glove-puppet hand of Ben Franks’s Satan, the York Minster clock chimed its own sonorous forewarning across Dean’s Park.

Such serendipitous moments make the York Mystery Plays what they are: plays of their time time “brought forth” again for our times in street performances with contemporary resonance and yet inextricably linked to the past. Ellie took the clock’s intervention in her stride, still sinking her teeth into the forbidden fruit in Canon Lee School’s performance of The Fall Of Man for the Gild of Freemen.

The waggons rolled across the York’s city-centre streets last Sunday as the 2014 York Mystery Plays were staged at four stations and they will do so again this Sunday, once the Minster clock strikes the fist chime of midday.

Under the artistic direction of Deborah Pakkar-Hull, 12 plays are being performed, divided into two sessions from noon and mid-afternoon, each play linked by Ged Cooper’s very welcome new Chorus speeches.

Last weekend, the waggons made their way through the city from Dean’s Park, to College Green, King’s Square and King’s Manor to the accompaniment of Early music in warm conditions, initially under grey skies with occasional spots of rain before the sun shone on the righteous and not so righteous alike.

Mounted by the Guilds of York and the York Festival Trust, the pageant plays tell the street version of Bible stories in medieval language and both modern and older dress, beginning with the Guild of Building’s presentation of The Creation of the World, always a favourite, not least for the sight of a model whale spouting water in the audience’s direction.

This year’s Plays stack up no no fewer than seven actors playing Christ, who vary from a Jesus in flat cap and floral-backed waistcoat to a Jesus in a trilby, cravat and cream Oxford bags.

John Hoyland’s Jesus, “Jewish King” daubed on his chest, gives the most memorable performance, stretched across the cross in the Company of Butchers The Crucifixion and The Death Of Christ, performed in tandem with the Church of St Chad on Knavesmire.

The Mystery Plays never cease to throw up surprises or shocks, such as when the vicar of Heslington Church, the Reverend Jan Nobel, is “killed” by soldiers in a modern setting of the Massacre of Innocents.

Death is ever present in the Plays but so is birth and re-birth, horror and beauty. How dazzling look the angel wings of the Sounds Fun community choir in the Guild of Scriveners’ The Angels And Shepherds.

Plenty of companies look for the modern link, be it the mocking soldiers in The Crucifixion or...the modern soldiers that precede them in the Company of Cordwainers’ Christ Before Annas And Caiaphas.

York Settllement Players’ director Graham Sanderson and designer Mike Rogers turn their pageant waggon into an echo of the Abu Ghraib with surveillance cameras, and a young female soldier takes a photo on her mobile phone as James Osman’s Jesus is kicked. Claire Morley’s Annas, meanwhile, disdainfully peels a satsuma. This play can be notoriously dull, but not so here.

The day ends with the most visually striking performance: the Company of Merchant Adventurers’ The Last Judgement, here given a gothic “steampunk” interpretation by director Emma Cunningham, designer Steven Ryan, costume designer Cheryl White and a cast featuring Pocklington School performers. Only in the York Mystery Plays could God be played by Heaven; Alan Heaven to be precise.

“Be of good cheer,” concludes Cooper’s chorus. “Live hopeful days.” What an apt sentiment on which to finish.

- The York Mystery Plays 2014 will be staged at four stations on Sunday: Dean’s Park, Part One, from 12 noon, Part Two, from 2.45pm; College Green, 12.30pm and 3.15pm; St Sampson’s Square, 1.15pm and 4pm; Museum Gardens, 2pm and 4.45pm. There is ticketed seating at Dean’s Park and Museum Gardens and free viewing at all four.