Playing a Part in History : : The York Mysteries, 1951 - 2006 / / Margaret Rogerson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Rogerson, Margaret,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (328 p.)

The York Mystery Plays are a cycle of originally performed on wagons in the city. They date from the fourteenth century and Biblical narrative from Creation to Last Judgment. After nearly four hundred years without a performance, a revival of the York Mysteries began in 1951 when local amateurs led by professional theatre practitioners staged them during the festival of Britain. Playing a Part in History examines the ways in which the revival of these plays transformed them for twentieth- and twenty-first-century audiences. Considering such topics as the contemporary popularity of the plays, the agendas of the revivalists, and major production differences, Margaret Rogerson provides a fascinating comparison of medieval and modern English drama. Drawing extensively on archival material, and newspaper and academic reviews of the plays in recent years, Playing a Part in History is not only an illuminating account of early English drama, but also of the ways in which theatre allows people to interact with the past.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- 1. From Medieval Religious Festival to the Festival of Britain -- 2. Dramatic Transformations: Performance Spaces and Scripts -- 3. A Leap of Faith -- 4. Theatre of Cruelty -- 5. Theatre of the People -- 6. Storm Clouds over the Museum Gardens -- 7. Indoor Mysteries -- 8. Theatre of the Streets -- Epilogue: Ongoing Mysteries -- Appendix 1: Music in the Outdoor Mysteries -- Appendix 2: Biographies -- Appendix 3: Digest of Plays, Directors, and Performers -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index