WHERE else but the York Mystery Plays would you see Jesus limbering up for the plays ahead with a callisthenics routine in Dean’s Park?

The Jesus in question was Mike Tyler, pumping himself up for the first of four performances last Sunday of Agony In The Garden, St Luke the Evangelist’s contribution to the 2010 waggon production for the Company of Cordwainers.

It was an unguarded moment, a last preparation before the long stretch on a hot but windy day, and no doubt Mike will do the same tomorrow when the same 12 plays will be staged at four stations, Dean’s Park, College Green, St Sampson’s Square and Museum Gardens, from noon.

In all, there are seven Jesuses in the 2010 production, and no sight is more moving than Neil Tattersall’s Jesus being raised on the cross by the band of matter-of-fact soldiers in the Company of Butchers’ The Crucifixion, especially when played out against the backdrop of the scaffolding on York Minster at College Green.

College Green is the one station where there is no ticketed seating, and so you can have the best sightlines for free, although it is no less pleasurable to move from station to station or to follow a waggon on its path through the streets, pulled by a hard-working team accompanied by musicians.

Performances range from the traditional, such as the Guild of Building’s The Creation, to the very experimental. Particularly worth seeing are York St John University’s Abraham And Isaac, where an all-female cast (how times have changed from the original all-male convention) use only two boxes and sticks for maximum storytelling impact; the Brechtian debut of Square Pegs Theatre Company, from St Peter’s School, who turn bowler hats into murdered babies in Massacre Of The Innocents; and Pocklington School’s The Last Judgement, where stilt-walking devils will give you sleepless nights.

The weather forecast is for sunny intervals on a day when the sun will shine on the righteous and the not-so righteous alike, as all life is in the York Mystery Plays.