TICKETS for the Mystery Plays 2016 – one of the biggest events York Minster has ever staged – will go on sale on Wednesday, January 13, the cathedral has announced.

The Minster’s nave will be transformed into a 1,000-seater auditorium for the production of the famous plays, which return to the cathedral for the first time in 16 years and the second time in their history in May for a five-week run.

In keeping with tradition, a community cast will form the heart of the production with just one professional actor. The cast will be supported by an army of backstage volunteers, the York Minster Mystery Makers.

The scale of the production and anticipated high demand for tickets has prompted the Minster to invite a number of experienced box office providers, both national and regional, to tender for the contract.

A “combination of strong track record, local knowledge and expertise” resulted in the contract being offered to the York Theatre Royal.

Nicola Corp, producer of the York Minster Mystery Plays 2016, said: “We’re delighted to be working with York Theatre Royal to provide our Box Office for the York Minster Mystery Plays in 2016.

“This will be a fabulous production on a monumental scale – we’re expecting over 40,000 people to come and see the Plays over the course of their run.

"Customer service is crucial to us, as is the rich Plays tradition in the city, so who better to work with than the York Theatre Royal? In a strong field of potential providers, no-one offered a better service than our (almost) neighbours, so we’re looking forward to working together very much."

Tickets for the production will be available to purchase from 9:30am on Wednesday, January 13, via the York Minster Mystery Plays website at www.yorkminster.org/mysteryplays2016 or by calling 01904 623568.