I WAS interested to read your correspondent's suggestion that the magnificent Minster production of the Mystery Plays should have been put on video (July 22).

This is an idea which will doubtless be received with enthusiasm in some quarters. Not, however, by me.

I have seen every production of the York Cycle since they were revived in 1951 as York's contribution to the Festival of Britain. I worked with the technical crew on two productions and directed the Guild of Scriveners Play of Doubting Thomas two years ago when a selection was performed in the original concept on wagons drawn through the streets of the city.

All of those productions were individual and memorable. Therein lies the danger of a video. By committing a production to tape, you create not only a definitive performance, but a straight jacket for future directors and performers.

If you read the words 'a hand bag' do you not immediately in your mind head Dame Edith Evans speaking them?

No, the Mystery Plays, while presented in theatrical form, remain what they have been since the 15th century, an experience. Not something to be etched in binary form on to a laser disc, but to be absorbed and preserved by the soul.

Philip J Bowman,

Ogleforth,

York.