Playing a Part in History: The York Mysteries, 1951 - 2006

By Margaret Rogerson

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802099246
• ISBN13: 9780802099242
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher