THE pageant waggons are ready to roll into York city centre for the 2014 York Mystery Plays on Sunday at noon.

After nearly four years of planning by York Festival Trust and the seven Guilds of York for their fifth quadrennial production since 1998, the plays take to the streets this weekend under the artistic direction of Deborah Pakkar-Hull. Around 600 community participants will be involved, including actors, set builders, wagon-pushing teams and musicians, who will repeat their station-to-station marathon over seven hours the following Sunday.

Each of the 12 plays chosen by Deborah from the York cycle has an individual director but the 2014 production ultimately is overseen by Deborah, a freelance director who grew up in Balderby St James, near Thirsk. She has been working in tandem with those directors, each guild's waggon master and producer Ben Pugh, the go-to man for all manner of open-air events in York and beyond.

"The waggon plays are a really dynamic form of theatre and innovation is built into their presentation," Deborah says. "Whether you do or don't like what each group does, it has always given rise to conversations and that influences what might come next in four years' time.

"I also sense there's confidence among the groups in taking on ever bigger challenges in their productions, and although it may differ from group to group, when we've had monthly meetings with each director since December, we've not only discussed the nuts and bolts, but there's also been bartering about resources and a sharing of ideas.

"There's also been a shift away from protecting each play from the other groups in advance, so there's a gradual cracking open of individual plays. They now play as performances within the context of the Mystery Plays as a whole. Now the companies take pride in that and in the achievements of everyone.

"Competition raises the overall bar; that's human nature, but I do believe each group is about participating and responding to their participants' needs, though I have introduced a chrous, a group whose involvement has required negotiation and communication to bring people along with my vision."

After applicants were invited by the York Festival Trust and Script Yorkshire to short samples of their verse in the Mystery Plays idiom, Script Yorkshire York branch member Ged Cooper was invited to continue her long association with the Mystery Plays by writing the chorus parts. "We appointed Ruby Clarke, the 2013 TakeOver festival director at the Theatre Royal to direct the chrous, as we wanted a combination of Ged's experience and young blood," says Deborah.

"Ruby had directed two of the new Modern Mysteries in the Museum Gardens during the 2012 York Mystery Plays, including Ged's work Fields Of Gold, and she was able to thow out her casting net far and wide to recruit a chorus of 12."

The chorus will be broken down into a mini-chorus of three for each station. "Their role is to be involved at the geninning and end of Party One and Two and also to bridge the gaps between the plays being staged, especially dealing with any dark material," says Deborah.

"It's all about uniting the whole performance as the Plays go from Creation to The Last Judgement, strengthening the link between the audience and the action. While Ged has used the traditional language of the Plays, the chorus are in modern dress and they emerge from the crowd, so they're like representatives of the audience."

Deborah has noted one trend among the 12 performances that collectively tell of the struggle between good and evil with Jesus as the focus of a series of human dilemmas, conflicts, difficulties and enterprises. "A lot of the groups have gone for contemporary resonance in their plays, or if they're medieval, they're flavoured with some sense of the here and now," she says.

"There's a significant number who will be in modern dress or, in the case of Pocklington School, they'll be taking a significant influence from the Steampunk movement and fin de ciecle for their Last Judgement performance for the Company of Cordwainers.

"The University York St John will have an English folk influence in The Raising Of Lazarus and the York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust will apply the same."

As ever, the 2014 Mystery Plays will represent the people of York today. "The production is an act of community, with the different communities of the city involved, whether as a deep commitment to faith, or for an acting challenge or because it represents a really interesting academic question or to give a wider profile to a school's acting talent," Deborah concludes.

 

Timetable

The 2014 York Mystery Plays, July 13 and 20, noon to 7pm.

Part One: Creation Of The World To the Fifth Day, presented by the York Guild of Building; The Fall Of Man, Gild of Freemen with Canon Lee School; The Angels And The Shepherds, Guild of Scriveners; The Slaughter Of The Innocents, Heslington Church; The Baptism, HidDen Theatre; The Woman Taken In Adultery and The Raising Of Lazarus, University of York St John; The Entry Into Jerusalem, York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust; and Christ Before Annas And Caiaphas, The Company of Cordwainers with the York Settlement Community Players.

Part Two: After an interval, each Sunday’s plays will continue with The Crucifixion and The Death Of Christ, staged by The Company of Butchers with St Chad’s Church; The Harrowing Of Hell, St Luke’s Church; The Resurrection, The Company of Merchant Taylors, and The Last Judgement, The Company of Merchant Adventurers with Pocklington School.

• The playing stations on July 13 will be Dean’s Park by York Minster; Part One from 12 noon and Part Two from 2.45pm; College Green, 12.30pm and 3.20pm; King’s Square, 1.15pm and 4pm; and King’s Manor, 2pm and 4.45pm. July 20, Dean’s Park, Part One from noon and Part Two, 2.45pm; College Green, 12.30pm and 3.20pm; St Sampson’s Square, 1.15pm and 4pm; and Museum Gardens, 2pm and 4,45pm. Some have ticketed seating; all have free viewing too. Tickets are available from yorkmysteryplays.co.uk