It was with a mixture of relief and reservation that I read the news of the council's (albeit belated) re-conversion to its civic responsibility to part-fund the staging of a full-blown production of the Mystery Plays.
Relief that the uncertainty about the future of the plays appears to have been lifted, for the time being at least.
Reservation on several grounds.
Firstly, there seems no good reason to have abandoned the three or four-year cycle which was so successful from 1951 to 2000 inclusive.
Secondly, the Minster (while a spectacular venue) has no connection at all to what was historically a purely secular celebration and there are viable alternative venues.
Thirdly, the Wagon Plays are (yet again) being peddled as some sort of substitute which we can make do with in the ten years which will elapse between main productions.
Admirable though the Wagon Plays are, they are an entirely different creature to and incomparable with the main plays though the public could be excused for any confusion because most reporting invariably fails to emphasise the distinction.
Even your article on the main plays led with a photo of a wagon actor!
Conspiracy or cock-up?
It happens too often to be the latter.
Rory Mulvihill,
Palmes Close,
York.
Updated: 10:27 Monday, November 14, 2005
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