PLANS are being drawn up to stage an outdoor theatrical production near York Minster this Easter - pandemic permitting.

A partnership of York Festival Trust, York Minster and York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is working together to perform ‘The York Passion’ on Saturday, April 2 and Easter Monday, April 4.

The play is set to be staged on two or possibly three static wagons on the hard standing in front of the Minster School.

There will be three performances per day of a little over an hour each, with tickets sold for a nominal charge to ensure appropriate distancing arrangements are adhered to.

Auditions and rehearsals will be conducted virtually in accordance with current requirements.

Linda Terry, chair of the Supporters Trust, said that despite the current dark times, she felt it was right to look forward and create an opportunity for local people to participate in, and enjoy, a theatrical production that fulfilled the trust’s aim of keeping York’s Medieval Mystery Play heritage alive in a format that could be enjoyed safely.

“With the country now in its third lockdown, it is unclear what public health measures will be in place during the rehearsal phase and indeed it is quite possible that we may have to cancel or postpone the production, but any such decision will be taken jointly by the partnership and the director,” she said.

Festival Trust chair Roger Lee said all three partners had mounted productions of the York Mystery Plays over the last five-30 years.

The partnership is seeking a director to ‘create a single play - no more than 70 minutes, with no interval - from the various pageants in the original Mystery Plays, according to his or her vision, using elements from the Crucifixion, the Death of Christ, and the Resurrection, but possibly starting with the Road to Calvary and ending with the Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene'.

Applicants should email a CV and their vision for the production on one side of A4 by midnight on January 30 to linda.terry@ympst.co.uk.