Boss speaks up for wagon plays

The authority's arts commissioner, Peter Boardman, said it could even be argued that the pageant wagon plays were more successful as a community event.

He contacted the Evening Press after we revealed last week that the full-blown Mystery Plays may not be staged again in York until at least 2010, when it is hoped the Minster may host another production.

Rory Mulvihill, who played Christ in the 1996 production, said then that another pageant wagon performance on the streets of York, while very good in its own right, should not be considered an equal or substitute to a full-blown production.

But Mr Boardman, who is a member of the Minster Mystery Plays Board and of the Board of Management of the Guilds of York Mystery Plays, contacted the Evening Press to say he had a different view.

"They are absolutely an equal and, in active, participatory terms, arguably more successful as a community event."

He said such plays had been "excellently and successfully" produced and presented in 2002 by the Companies and Guilds of York, for the first time in 434 years. They were produced and performed predominantly by local people.

However, members of the cast and audience from previous plays, held in the Museum Gardens, Theatre Royal and Minster, have continued to protest at the lack of a full-scale production until 2010.

David Simpson told the Evening Press that a ten-year gap would be "very disappointing and they should be performed on a regular basis", adding: "I am sure people would sponsor it."

Daisy Goodwin said: "I am in favour of keeping the plays every four years or so. Ten years is too long. So much can happen in ten years." Her views were echoed by Kate Houghton, who said she had been to see every production since they began in 1951. Judy Pattison, who had also seen every production, said: "I think the Mystery Plays should be performed every three or four years."

Updated: 10:20 Tuesday, June 17, 2003