To York with colleagues from Eastern Angles and Vivacity (Peterborough) to see The York Mystery Plays 2012.
Seeing the spectacle of 250 people on sage against the stunning backdrop of St Mary’s Abbey is worth the ticket prices alone. The huge narrative sweep of the mystery cycle from Creation to Last Judgement provides Directors Damien Cruddock (York Theatre Royal) and Paul Burbridge (Riding Lights) a broad canvas which moves from the touchingly intimate to the gloriously epic.
Matt chats to Pete who is co-ordinating the digital relay to the SPACE project on Saturday Photo Penny Griffin
Everywhere we went that there Penny Griffin took photos – Matt with Liz Wilson
Miles of Socks and frocks Photo Penny Griffin
Not surprisingly we quickly learnt just how much work had gone into a project of this scale. Following an open call back in Septemmber 2011 the 500 commuunity cast (two teams of 250) began rehearsing nightly and every Saturday in April. The volunteer costume team have been working even longer – 80 of them – sourcing, making and altering costumes since January. In all over 1,500 local people have been involved. At that kind of scale the Mystery Plays is about 5 times the size of the Peterborough Community Play but there was lots to learn and we all came away with reams of notes.
It’s that extra-ordinary commitment of the volunteer cast and crew that really drives the production giving it a gloriously rough energy that is totally true to the original medieval tradition (it will be interesting to see if that same spirit comes across online). It’s also an energy – which channelled in the performance becomes boisterous and exuberant in the pub post show. A reminder that at it’s heart The York Mysteries is a community coming together, celebrating and enjoying itself.
