After the Mystery

WILL we ever again see another York Mystery Plays on the scale of this summer's £600,000 show at York Minster?

The Millennium production had been put in the hands of a specially-formed board with charitable status, whose duties will end once the financial ledger has been completed.

The 28,000 sell-out should see the first ever Minster production making a profit, and the chairman, the Dean of York, the Very Reverend Raymond Furnell, said the board intends to pass on the legacy of the Mystery Plays in the form of "seed corn" for a production in 2004, once the size of "credit hangover" has been established.

"The question of the future of the Plays is an interesting one: one that has been exercising my mind, but it would be quite wrong for this board to dictate what happens in the future, " Dean Furnell said. "The problem is that no one really owns the Plays; on the one hand that's rather charming and enchanting; on the other, it has financial implications."

The Dean says the Plays will be different again in 2004, and first there needs to be a city-wide discussion as to what should happen next. "Maybe, as with the Plays for 2000, the city council should call a meeting, with either Charlie Croft acting head of the leisure office or Peter Boardman commissioning manager for the arts in charge."

Dean Furnell did not rule out the possibility of the Plays returning to York Minster in the future, but confined himself to saying: "It would be inappropriate for the Minster to be seen to be doing the Plays again in 2004. I don't think the Church would want to 'reclaim' the Mystery Plays: we don't feel any territorial right to them."

Nevertheless, thoughts are abroad in the city about doing a production of the grandeur of the Oberammergau celebrations in Germany once every decade. Given the success of the York Minster production in 2000, then why not?

Although Charlie Croft did not address that possibility in specific terms, such a move would chime with the City of York Council's thinking for the future of the Plays, and discussions will start as soon as the board's financial report is ready.

The leisure officer stressed the council definitely wanted the Plays to continue but "in a manner that is manageable". "I don't believe it would be possible to raise similar financial support to this summer's Plays in 2004," he said. "We'd like the Plays to remain on a four-yearly basis, but perhaps with a 'bigger' production not necessarily every four years, and with pageant wagon shows in between."

Mr Croft adds: "I don't think the council are the forefathers of the Plays. You can't guarantee there will be money for the Plays, but the council will guarantee their continuity and a support structure."

Maybe in future the Mystery Plays could be run on a rotation system involving York Theatre Royal, the Minster, the York Early Music Festival and the Friends of York Mystery Plays and Festival.

Delma Tomlin, administrative director of the Early Music Festival, ruled out the possibility of the festival ever staging the Plays but was keen for the present informal partnership between the festival and the Friends to continue.

"While I would prefer the four-yearly Mystery Plays and the festival to be kept separate because I believe they are stronger that way, there is a common link between the medieval plays and early music, so it makes sense on a historical level for us to keep forging links for pageant productions on the streets, as we did when working with the Friends and the city's Guilds in our 1998 festival," she says.

The Theatre Royal, meanwhile, is keeping its cards close to its chest. "It's very early days yet to think about 2004," says executive director Elizabeth Jones. "However, the most important thing is that the whole city continues to work together to ensure that the great tradition of the Mystery Plays thrives in the new millennium, continuing its vibrant and changing tradition."

One final thought for 2004 comes from the director of the 2000 production, Gregory Doran, associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. "It struck me, why not next time do all 47 plays on carts on the streets on Corpus Christi Day from dawn till nightfall, starting at 4.30 in the morning. There would be something wonderful in God creating light as the light comes up," says Mr Doran, who suggests the plays should be staged by various different groups sponsored by the guilds.

Furthermore, he foresees the potential for global impact in the digital age.

"I was asked if I wanted to do a Shakespeare play on the worldwide web with multi-camera filming, like the system now being used by Sky for its football coverage, and it made me think the Plays could be filmed for the web, so people in Idaho or wherever could play an interactive part in the whole experience."

That certainly would be another giant leap for the Mystery Plays.

PICTURE: Ray Stevenson as Jesus in the York Millennium Mystery Plays