Preview: York Youth Mystery Plays, 21st June (From York Press)

Preview: York Youth Mystery Plays, 21st June

4:11pm Friday 20th June 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share

REVIVED Remixed Retold and promoted on a beer-mat by a stubble-bearded young man with his Calvin Kleins peeking out from his slacker jeans.

Hands outstretched against the ancient walls of York in a Christ- on-the-cross pose, this is the new face of the Mystery Plays. Or rather the York Youth Mysteries, tomorrow's day of free perform- ances that will be staged in and around the city-centre streets from 11am to 5pm.

Not since the 1951 Festival of Britain and York Festival of Arts, when the York Cycle of Mystery Plays was revived and re-written after years in slumber, have the Mysteries been so shaken and stirred.

One thousand participants, 321 performers, 76 performances, 36 projects, 15 venues and nine months of activities have gone into the event that freshens up the testament tales anew. And remember, these Plays were, and remain, street plays rather than tablets of Biblical stone passed down to the city's forefathers.

"This is not a call to alms; this is not evangelism," says Stephen Burke, York Youth Mysteries' cre- ative director.

"But for anyone who thinks they may be offended the concept of this project, even without seeing the pieces, I believe that by watch- ing these performances, a lot more people may be drawn back to the Bible stories than would have hap- pened if they hadn't seen what we're doing.

"I'm not saying that was the aim of the project, but I wouldn't push that away. What we have is a dia- logue going on, with young people addressing questions about them- selves and their society and the society they want to create."

Stephen notes how the arts com- munity is "always in the vanguard of addressing this issue".

"Everyone who has taken part can be proud of the adult and witty responses they have come up with, and, hey, they will have looked at the Mystery Plays and may now feel ownership of them,"

he says.

"If they have the chance to be involved again in future York Youth Mysteries, I hope they will found something of value that'll make them want to do it again because they realise they haven't been hectored into doing some- thing they didn't want to do.

Instead they've had the opportuni- ty to put into practice why they might want to become artists."

Stephen says the project grew from a desire within the city coun- cil's arts service for people aged 16 to 25 to "engage with Plays that had been part of their heritage and history".

"There was a wish to stem the stream away from these Plays, in the hope that we may be able to re-brand the Plays and let young people put their stamp on them for the future," he explains.

"In terms of trying to get a vision together and delivering it, it's all very good talking about it, but then you have to put it togeth- er, to give a reason for doing it, and to make it different from the old four-yearly York Mystery Plays and the guild plays."

For the first York Youth Mysteries, the creative team has combined state-of-the-art arts - music technology, filmmaking, dig- ital photography, DJing, installa- tions, parkour free-running - with dance, theatre, circus and song while taking inspiration from the city itself.

"This time it's stone and chrome, so what we're using is the architecture of York," says Stephen.

"Rather than having an every-man setting, we're trying to use York and make the city a charac- ter within the Mysteries, so that's why we're performing in both the City Screen Basement Bar, a venue associated with comedy and rock concerts, and a traditional venue like the Museum Gardens."

As for the content of the per- formances, the texts have been a starting point for multi-media interpretation.

"We want to put a standard in the ground for the future. I felt we should use the old texts as a cata- lyst, to look through the stories, read the narratives, move them forward to make it contemporary, and if you do that, make it a ratio of 90 per cent new and ten per cent old to connect with people today," says Stephen "They have looked at the form of the plays, the history, and then found what's alive in the text and what resonates with them in what has become a more and more secu- lar society where they're being drawn away from religion in their daily life. The Plays ask us to think about the moral code we live by and how we answer to that."

Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell have "jazzed up" Bible stories in the past; likewise esteemed playwrights Anthony Minghella and Tony Harrison have revived, remixed and retold Mystery Plays.

Here in York, meanwhile, the wait now goes on until Autumn 2011 for the first big-scale York Mystery Plays in York Minster since Gregory Doran's Millennium epic in 2000. Instead it has fallen on the promenading city guilds and now the city's youth to keep the Mysteries alive.

"What we want to do is establish an identity," says Stephen.

"We don't want just to celebrate how articulate young people are and then let them drift away. We want to keep it in their psyche that it's not just about protecting the old but evolution, and if we can keep it going there's no rea- son why we can't create a cycle that is always changing."

St Sampson's Square

Continual performances throughout the day with a final collective performance at 5pm. The square will come alive with DJ- ing from Upfade DJs, a new gospel per- formance, the Exodus Dub-Steppaz, Parkour, the York Youth Dance Company.

Barley Hall

* Parlour: The Eight commandments, by Applefields Schoool. Continual sound installation throughout the day.

* Buttery: The Annunciation, by York Youth Mysteries Performance ensemble.

Continual sound installation.

* Great Chamber: The Betrayal, by York Youth Mysteries Dance Company 12.45pm, 1.30pm, 2.15pm, (10 minutes).

* Great Hall: The Last Supper, by York Youth Mysteries Performance Ensemble - 2.30pm - 4.30pm (new audience granted entry every 20 minutes).

King's Square

Entry into Jerusalem, by Riding Lights Youth Theatre 11am, noon, 1pm (20 min- utes).

City Screen Basement Bar

Temptation of Eve, by York Youth Mysteries Performance Ensemble - 11.15am, 12.15pm, 1.15pm (15 mins).

Slaughter of the Innocents, by York Theatre Royal Young Actors Co, 2.30pm, 3.30pm, 4.30pm (30 minutes).

Minster Gardens

Death And Resurrection, by Riding Lights Youth Theatre - 2pm, 3pm, 4pm (15 min- utes).

Museum Gardens (archway, main entrance)

Death of Judas, by Riding Lights Youth Theatre - 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm (10 minutes).

Royal York Hotel

Meeting at the Memorial Gardens. Song of Solomon, by Upstage Centre Youth Theatre - 11am, noon, 1pm (15 minutes).

Bootham Bar

The Flood by York Theatre Royal Young Actors Co - noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm (30 minutes).

York Central Library

The Archivist's Play, by York St John University 12.30pm - 3.45pm.

Davygate Square

Judgement Day, by York Theatre Royal Young Actors Co 1.30pm - 3.30pm.

St Helen's Square

The Crucifixions, by York St John University 12.30pm - 2.30pm.

Holy Trinity Church

The Parable Of The Lost Sheep, by Applefields School - 1pm, 1.30pm.

The Eight Commandments, by Applefields School. Continual sound installation.

The Guildhall

The Mini Mysteries 10am - 12.15pm.

An ongoing series of performances devised by weekly workshops at York Arts Academy along with plays by York High School and St Barnabas' Primary School.

Vacant Shop unit (Blake Street)

Walking on Glass, by Inspired Youth and the Pupil Support Centre 11am - 5pm.

• Print
• Email
• Share