THE future of the York Mystery Plays may be a mystery in itself, but Stagecoach Youth Theatre York is stepping into the breach with a new musical play inspired by Bible stories.

Next week, The Unauthorised Version will be staged in Trinity Methodist Church, next to Stagecoach's headquarters in Trinity Hall.

Explaining how the musical evolved, Stagecoach artistic director John Cooper says: "If you were to ask our members to list their favourite productions over the past 12 years, chances are that Godspell would feature high up on the list.

"As the company has already presented two productions of that musical, the young people of a third Stagecoach generation were anxious not to replicate but to do their own thing.

"However, to take a book from the Bible and bring it to life with popular song and dance is easier said than done."

Nevertheless, Cooper and his co-director, University of York graduate Anna Silman, set to the task at hand. "Anna was particularly interested in adapting some of the stories of the Old Testament, while I enthused about all the bits of the New Testament left out of the Godspell script," says Cooper.

Around this time too, they picked up on the Evening Press reports on the cloudy future of the Mystery Plays' four-yearly cycle.

"I thought 'Why not use the Mysteries' cycle as a starting point?'," says Cooper. "The idea of taking episodes from both Old and New Testaments and setting them to pop music certainly appealed to the 24 young performers involved in the project and The Unauthorised Version was born."

Any similarity with the Mystery Plays ended after the initial concept. The Creation becomes a rap written by Silman with visual effects by Cooper; Adam and Eve discover Eden to the music of Mike Oldfield.

"We're keeping the whole thing very simple but hopefully effective nonetheless. In Noah and The Flood, for instance, we could never compete with the lavish animals seen in the York Minster production in 2000 but we hope to balance that deficit by making a point of the simple approach," Cooper says. To prove the point, Noah's ark will be a piece of garden trellis work.

The production has two choreographers: Feisel Khodabakus, who uses Dancing In The Streets for Jesus's Entry into Jerusalem, and James Fackrell, who will be leaving York after this show to take up a ten-month dance contract with a cruise operator.

The Unauthorised Version will be performed in Trinity Methodist Church, rather than Stagecoach's usual venue of the adjoining hall, at the invitation of the church. Performances are at 7.30pm, September 24 to 27, and tickets cost £6, concessions £4, on 01904 674675.

Updated: 09:25 Friday, September 19, 2003