How the medieval Wakefield Mystery Plays have been given a modern makeover

After not being staged for a generation, The Wakefield Mystery Plays return. Theatre correspondent Nick Ahad reports.
The new production of the Wakefield Mysterys features rolling news, rap battles and poetry slams.The new production of the Wakefield Mysterys features rolling news, rap battles and poetry slams.
The new production of the Wakefield Mysterys features rolling news, rap battles and poetry slams.

Rolling news, rap battles, poetry slams, a TV debate: some of the elements that combine, obviously, to make of one of the most ancient of all theatrical traditions.

It’s the Mystery Plays, but not as you know it.

The Wakefield Mysteries might not be the most well known of the ancient theatrical tradition, but they hold their place in the history of the Biblical traditions.

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Writer Nick Lane has shown little respect to the Wakefield Mystery Plays in his updating of the tales – a very good thing according to director Andrew Loretto.

The Nick Lane retelling has resulted in a take on the ancient Biblical stories that is fresh and will bring a new insight into the stories, but also bring alive a spectacular setting for the theatrical event.

“He’s taken stories that are timeless, that everyone thinks they know and he has looked at them to see what is relevant about these stories for our age now,” says Loretto.

“The Bible tells us stories about mass immigration, forced migration, torture, discrimination. There is a lot going on there that tells us something about what we recognise happening in the world today. International terrorism is something that is discussed in the Bible, which couldn’t be more relevant to our world today. By looking at the stories in a brand new way, we’re able to look at why they are so relevant today.”

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The Mystery Plays are cycles of plays in English verse dramatizing key Biblical stories from the Creation to the Last Judgement. Full cycles survive from York (48 plays), Wakefield (32 plays), Chester (24 plays).

Although York regularly restages the Mystery Plays, Wakefield has not seen a production of these stories in a generation.

Lane has created two new plays, The Fall and Rise and The Price of Love, based on both the Old and the New Testament for the 2016 Wakefield Mysteries.

It is not just a new telling of ancient stories that will be bringing in audiences, there is much about this production that is likely to attract, chief of which is the setting.

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Wakefield Cathedral, which has stood on its current site since 1329, will play host to the production until August 20 after opening last night.

“It’s beautiful,” says Loretto. “A programme of restoration has just been completed so while we were doing our site visits ahead of the production we were able to see the whole thing being gradually restored. As the craft work was uncovered it was quite astonishing to see. The stone work has been beautifully restored and as a setting it feels both intimate and epic. Some cathedrals can feel a bit dark and gothic, almost overwhelming, but Wakefield Cathedral, particularly now, feels welcoming, warm and light. We’re really making the most of the space.”

Ultimately, however, while the setting will attract audiences, the play is the thing. It’s easy to feel like the mysteries come around on a regular basis, perhaps because they feel like so much a part of so many English traditions, but Loretto believes the mysteries in Wakefield deserve another staging. “Although they are absolutely one of the established mystery cycles in this country, they’re not as well known as, say, the York Mysteries,” says Loretto.

“I think it’s important for Wakefield, as one of the originators of the form to stake its claim on the Mysteries map.

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“That’s something else that Nick the writer has been very aware of, so while the language has been updated and the stories have been adapted so that they are relevant to a contemporary audience, he has kept the original verse form.”

The production is also a departure for Wakefield Theatre, staging work off site is a rare occurence for the venue.

“I also think above and beyond Wakefield staking its claim, we have tried to explore the political pertinence. A consistent theme in our version is to look at the issue of the people who rule us, the elected and non-elected and the effect they have on our everyday lives. Nick’s script is a very humanist take on the stories, drawing out the effects of the political classes and the way that their decisions impact on our everyday life.”

The undertaking of staging the mysteries is always a big task. For Loretto, he has the additional challenge of using a community cast, people who have jobs and lives outside of the production, to stage this telling.

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It’s something he’s used to, having been instrumental in establishing the highly successful Sheffield People’s Theatre in 2011.

“The company staging the Wakefield Mysteries has an age range from 13 to 80,” he says,

“My approach to working with an inter-generational company is that they are just a company. I don’t differentiate between working with actors who are professional and a community cast.”

The fact that it is a community cast presenting the Wakefield Mysteries doesn’t mean there will be hundreds on stage. In fact the Wakefield Mysteries is being presented by a company of just 20 in each of the two plays.

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“The phrase I keep using is that we’re looking at creating epic intimacy. That’s the nature of the tales we are telling – they are epic in their scope and the spaces we are using are epic and spectacular, but the casts of 20 in each of the two companies presenting the two plays means there is an intimacy. We are taking audiences on a journey around different parts of the cathedral in intimate groups. It creates, we hope, something special.”

The Wakefield Mysteries, to August 20. Tickets 01924 211311.

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