Preview: York Mystery Plays

THE pageant waggons roll into York city centre on Sunday when 350 people take part in the Guilds of York's presentation of the York Mystery Plays.

Participants range from the youngest actor speaking role, 11-year-old Joshua King, to the York Settlement Players, whose involvement stretches back to 1951, the year the plays were revived for the first time since their abandonment in the Reformation in the 1550s.

The production programme has been devised and masterminded by Dr Mike Tyler, who is overseeing the pageant performances on Sunday and July 16, fresh from completing his PhD studies in medieval studies (including the Mystery Plays).

Born and raised in York, in 1994 he played the Porter in the St Luke's Church production of The Entry Into Jerusalem; in 1998, he directed The Harrowing Of Hell; in 2002, he was the artistic director of the Guilds' production. In 2006, 44-year-old Mike is the Pageant Master, a not dissimilar job but a title to strike a chord with medieval times.

"I feel that the way this style of street production works best is to get away from the technology of modern theatre and the connotations of artistic director'. The title of Pageant Master is more in keeping with what the Guilds wanted," says Mike.

"With the quality of directors we have for this summer's plays, the requirement is far less for an artistic director and far more for someone who's in a position to work between the artistic director and producer role: looking after the planning of a production like this, bringing it to the streets."

Serious planning started a year ago. "We felt that 2002 was a very successful model for the Guild productions, and the brief I was given was to say, right, in 2002 we performed ten plays, let's push it a bit further, let's do 12'. But obviously the more plays you put on, the more groups you need and potentially the longer playing time the plays will run."

With this in mind, the number of stations performance locations has been cut from five to four to shorten the running time. "The South Transept is now the main entrance to York Minster, so we've decided it would be inappropriate and impractical to perform in that area, which is a shame because it was one of the favourite stations," says Mike.

"We've also dropped King's Square but we're taking the Plays back to St Sampson's Square for the first time since 1998."

Mike says the city council's licensing, highways and cultural departments, along with the local police authority, have an important voice in the pageant waggon productions: "They're all extremely supportive of the Mystery Plays project and that gives us a head start, and there's also the advantage that the Guilds represent commerce in the city. It's only through collaboration that we realise what doing the Mystery Plays is about, and it's about the city," he says.

Significantly, more schools and church, drama and community groups expressed an interest in taking part than could be accommodated.

"The core of the productions remains the seven guilds, and those guilds have established a record of performing in their own right or have long-standing collaborations, such as the Merchant Adventurers with the York Settlement Players and director Richard Digby Day, who is back for a third time," Mike says.

"From my ivory tower, what I try to do is look across the city and say, right, who to bring in this year?'. The York universities are represented this time by York St John, in the year when it's celebrating achieving university status; we're delighted that the collaboration established between the Merchant Taylors and All Saints School in 2002 has been renewed; and there's a new collaboration between the Church of St Chad and the Butchers' Guild.

"We're also being joined for the first time by Pocklington School, which has a strong link with the Merchant Adventurers.

"Their head of drama is Alan Heaven how can you argue with a name like that? and earlier this year he staged a very impressive production that presented elements of the medieval plays but also introduced modern elements."

This combination of ancient and modern and York past and present will always flavour the character of the Mystery Plays, whatever the way forward.

"We're at the stage where we've prepared the canvas, and we have a city that is probably better informed than it has been for many years about the different facets of the Mystery Playing tradition," Mike says. "We've demonstrated what can be done through this community playing; the Guild plays are here to stay but where the city as a whole goes with the Mystery Plays and the playing tradition really is open now.

"The city can fill this canvas in any number of exciting ways and it's the groups that make up the city who must go down the gym, work their muscles, talk to each other and work out how best to do the Plays in the future.

"Whatever happens, for very positive reasons 2006 is my last production in this pageant-master role because it's important to have progression. Come four years' time, if what's required is a waggon pusher, then I'll be a waggon pusher.

"One thing I can say very definitely is that they're very demanding plays to stage but there's no job I would swap for this."

Mystery Plays fact file...

What are the mystery plays? The York Mystery (Corpus Christi) Plays use the colourful language of medieval Yorkshire to present the "history of the world" from the mystery of God's creation, through the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, to the Last Judgement. To the people who first drew together to perform and watch the Plays, the battle between Good and Evil was not theoretical theology, but an all-pervading fact of life. Disease and sudden death were an ever-present threat.

When did the Mystery Plays begin? First performed in 1340, the plays would be performed on the streets of York during the Feast of Corpus Christi in June. The Plays, presented on waggons, were pulled from one playing station to another. The end of the performances came suddenly in 1571, after Archbishop Edmund Grindal called in all copies of the Cycle, due to his support for the Reformation. As part of the Festival of Britain, they were revived in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey in 1951. More than 26,000 people witnessed those performances.

Did you know? In the Middle Ages, all parts were played by men. Young boys would dress up to play female roles.

Who wrote the Mystery Plays? They were written by at least one mystery author, known only as the York Master. It is thought he was a monk from St Mary's Abbey. If the desired author J.B. Priestley had responded favourably to a request for a new commission in 1951, the Plays' future would have taken a very different course.

What makes up the cycle of plays? Individual pageants were originally presented by different guilds of craftsmen performing appropriate stories. For example the Shipwrights were responsible for the Building of the Ark, while the Butchers played the Death of Christ.

Rival Mystery Play cycles: Every great European city housed their own Mystery Plays as a matter of civic pride. Currently, York is recognised as the most complete, with 48 Plays. In contrast, only one play remains of the Newcastle Cycle.

When were the plays revived? As part of the Festival of Britain, they were revived in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey in 1951. More than 26,000 people witnessed those performances.

Famous actors of the mystery plays: Dame Judi Dench completed a hat-trick of Mystery Plays performances in the role of Mary in 1957; Robson Green played Jesus in 1992; as did Joseph O'Conor, 1951 and 1954; Christopher Timothy, 1980; and Victor Banerjee, 1988. Classical actor and Hollywood star Jeremy Irons was once said to be interested in playing Jesus.

Significant events of the Mystery Plays: the postponing of the Mystery Plays on 1 August 1487 so that King Henry VIII could see them while visiting the city; the performance of the first black God in 1942, a San Franciscan man named Keith Jefferson; and the performance of the first female God in 1996, a York shopkeeper called Ruth Ford.

The changing location of the Mystery Plays: After the revival in 1951, the Mystery Plays moved indoors to the York Theatre Royal, and, for the first, and thought to be only, time in 2000, were presented in York Minster.