Cast

A Resurrection for York

Cast List

Pilgrim 1.     Wilma Edwards

Pilgrim 2.    Michael Maybridge

Pilgrim 3.     Victoria Roooker

Pilgrim 4.     Mary Callan

Pilgrim 5.     Nick Jones                    Narrator

Pilgrim 6.     Sally Maybridge          Narrator, Peter

Pilgrim 7.     Chris Pomfrett             John

Pilgrim 9.     Julie Speedie

Pilgrim 10.   Judith Ireland             Mary, Mother of Christ

Pilgrim 11.    Jodie Fletcher             Mary Cleophas

Pilgrim 12.    Tony Froud                 Joseph of Arimathea

Pilgrim 13.    Sonia di Lorenzo       Nicodemus

Pilgrim 14.    Emily Hansen            Mary Magdalene

Pilgrim 15.    Raqhael Harte.           Thomas

Pilgrim 16.    Samuel Valentine      Centurion

Pilgrim 17.    David Harrison           Soldier 1

Pilgrim 18.    Harold Mozley            Soldier 2

Pilgrim 19.    Janice Newton            Soldier 3

Pilgrim 20.   Colin Lea                      Soldier 4

A Visitor        David Denbigh

Director         Philip Parr

Associate Director      Terry Ram

Producer       Simon Tompsett

Photographs of outdoor Mystery Plays

York Mystery Plays are a magnificent example of medieval drama. Using the colourful language of medieval Yorkshire, they presented the ‘history of the world’ from the mystery of God’s Creation, through the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, to the Last Judgement.

To the townspeople who first drew together to perform and watch what they called the Corpus Christi Plays, the battle between Good and Evil was not theoretical theology, but an all-pervading fact of life. Disease and sudden death were an ever-present threat.  The plays were first written shortly after the Black Death reached Britain. They taught a simple message, but not in a simple way. Whereas the Bible was in Latin, these plays were in English.  Written to appeal to all sections of the community, they were sophisticated, often lavish, always theatrical.

The Cycle of Plays was made up of a number of individual pageants: 48 are known.  These separate episodes were originally presented on wagons through the streets, by York’s guilds of craftsmen: their crafts were also known as ‘mysteries’, hence the name of the Plays. Different guilds often presented appropriate scenes, so for example the Shipwrights were responsible for the Building of the Ark, while the Butchers played the Death of Christ.

Revived in the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, they used text transcribed from British Library manuscript, Add MS 35290.  The Plays have been performed and adapted many times since in a variety of locations – always by an enthusiastic volunteer cast to an enthralled audience.  This is indeed the ‘greatest story ever told’.