Mystery Plays gardens return to involve over 1,000 people

Over 1,000 community members have been invited to get involved in the full-scale production – the first to be staged in the city’s Museum Gardens for more than two decades.

They will have the chance to create costumes, tread the boards, and work behind the scenes in a purpose-built 1,500-seat outdoor theatre, with St Mary’s Abbey as a backdrop.

The production is being organised by York Theatre Royal, the Riding Lights Theatre Company and the York Museums Trust and will be performed between August 2 and 27.

The Mystery Plays have not been staged on this scale in the gardens since 1988 and the event is set to attract over 30,000.

The mammoth project, which aims to engage as many people from the local area as possible, was announced to the community yesterday.

The plays were first performed in the 14th century, but were abandoned during the Reformation.

They were revived in 1951 for the Festival of Britain and staged regularly until the early 1990s.

The Guilds of York became involved in 1994 and reclaimed the plays’ original heritage by staging them on wagons.