The Mysteries

Last updated

The Mysteries is a version of the medieval English mystery plays first presented at London's National Theatre in 1977. The cycle of three plays tells the story of the Bible from the creation to the last judgement.

Contents

Background

It is based largely on the Wakefield cycle of plays (but incorporating some scenes from the York, Chester and Coventry canons) and adapted by poet Tony Harrison, working with the original cast, into three parts: Nativity, The Passion and Doomsday. Directed by Bill Bryden, it was first performed on Easter Saturday 1977 on the terrace of the National Theatre building on the South Bank, London. It then went into the repertoire in the Cottesloe Theatre (part of the South Bank complex) until 20 April 1985 when the Cottesloe went 'dark'. [1] Later in 1985 it transferred with a slightly different cast (Barrie Rutter playing Herod & Pontius Pilate, and Barry Foster as Lucifer/Judas/Satan) [2] to the Lyceum Theatre—then in use as a ballroom and so without seating.

Harrison's concept was to present the original stories as "plays-within-plays", using as his characters the naïve but pious craftsmen and guild members, to some extent modernised to represent the trades of today—God, for example, created the world with the help of a real fork-lift truck— [3] acting out the parts of the story that their mediaeval counterparts would have done. At the start of each performance actors dressed as tradesmen welcomed the audience. [4] The performance was a promenade one, with the audience mingling with the actors and making up the crowd at such scenes as the last judgement. The Evening Standard reported witnessing "An extraordinary experience... no wonder the end of it all saw an explosion of communal joyousness with everybody, actors, musicians, and audience alike, cheering and clapping and singing and dancing."

Cast

Many well known actors appeared in the productions, including Brenda Blethyn, Kenneth Cranham, Edna Doré, Lynn Farleigh, Brian Glover (as God), Karl Johnson (as Jesus), Richard Johnson, Mark McManus, Eve Matheson (as Eve), Jack Shepherd and Robert Stephens (as Herod).

Cast of the 1985 National Theatre production

The Nativity [5]

RoleActor
Abel Karl Johnson
Abraham Derek Newark
Adam / IsaacStephen Petcher
Angel Gabriel Don Warrington
CainRobert Oates
Eve Eve Matheson
God Brian Glover
Herod Robert Stephens
Herod’s SonAnthony Trent
Joseph Dave Hill
Lucifer Jack Shepherd
Mak Jim Carter
Mary Brenda Blethyn
MaryDinah Stabb
Mrs Noah Edna Doré
Noah Howard Goorney
PercussionMichael Gregory
ShepherdTrevor Ray
Shepherd John Tamms
Wise ManChristopher Gilbert
Wise ManJames Grant

The Passion [6]

RoleActor
Angel GabrielDon Warrington
AnnasAnthony Trent
BarabasRobert Oates
Blind ManStephen Petcher
CayphasBrian Glover
DiscipleDavid Busby
DisciplePhilip Langham
JesusKarl Johnson
John BaptistHoward Goorney
JudasJack Shepherd
Mary MagdaleneBrenda Blethyn
Mary MagdaleneDinah Stabb
Mary MotherEdna Doré
Mary SaloneEve Matheson
PercussionMichael Gregory
PeterJames Grant
Pontius PilateRobert Stephens
Simon of CyreneChristopher Gilbert
Soldier 1Derek Newark
Soldier 2Trevor Ray
Soldier 3Dave Hill
Soldier 4Jim Carter
ThomasJohn Tams

Doomsday [7]

RoleActor
AngelDavid Busby
AngelPhilip Langham
Angel GabrielDon Warrington
AnnasAnthony Trent
DiscipleChristopher Gilbert
DiscipleRobert Oates
EveEve Matheson
GodBrian Glover
JohnStephen Petcher
JesusKarl Johnson
Mary MagdaleneBrenda Blethyn
Mary MagdaleneDinah Stabb
Mary MotherEdna Doré
PaulHoward Goorney
PeterJames Grant
PercussionMichael Gregory
Pontius PilateRobert Stephens
SatanJack Shepherd
Soldier 1Derek Newark
Soldier 2Trevor Ray
Soldier 3Dave Hill
Soldier 4Jim Carter
ThomasJohn Tams

The actor and musician John Tams and his Home Service band provided the folk music accompaniment and a selection of tracks from it was published on CD.

The 1985 Cottesloe version was filmed for Channel 4 Television. A revival of the cycle, again directed by Bryden and featuring some of the original cast, was chosen by the National Theatre to mark the millennium celebration in 2000. [8]

Awards

The productions won Bill Bryden the "Best Director" title in both the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the Olivier Awards for 1985, the year the three plays first appeared together in performance at the Lyceum Theatre. Other awards were: Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director; Olivier for Designer of the Year for William Dudley; City Limits award for Best Director, and for Best Designer; Plays and Players for Best Director and Best Designer. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystery play</span> Medieval European play

Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment. Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days. The name derives from mystery used in its sense of miracle, but an occasionally quoted derivation is from ministerium, meaning craft, and so the 'mysteries' or plays performed by the craft guilds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulton Mackay</span> Scottish actor

William Fulton Beith Mackay was a Scottish actor and playwright, best known for his role as prison officer Mr. Mackay in the 1970s television sitcom Porridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Campbell</span> British actor, director and writer (1941–2008)

Kenneth Victor Campbell was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre".

Declan Michael Martin Donnellan is an English film/stage director and author. He co-founded the Cheek by Jowl theatre company with Nick Ormerod in 1981. In addition to his Cheek by Jowl productions, Donnellan has made theatre, opera and ballet with a variety of companies across the world. In 1992, he received an honorary degree from the University of Warwick and in 2004 he was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in France. In 2010, he was made an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths' College, University of London. Donnellan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to theatre.

Jack Shepherd is an English actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his television roles, most notably the title role in Trevor Griffiths' series about a young Labour MP Bill Brand (1976), and the detective drama Wycliffe (1993–1998). His film appearances include All Neat in Black Stockings (1969), Wonderland (1999) and The Golden Compass (2007). He won the 1983 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a New Play for the original production of Glengarry Glen Ross.

<i>The Invention of Love</i> 1997 play by Tom Stoppard

The Invention of Love is a 1997 play by Tom Stoppard portraying the life of poet A. E. Housman, focusing specifically on his personal life and love for a college classmate. The play is written from the viewpoint of Housman, dealing with his memories at the end of his life, and contains many classical allusions. The Invention of Love won both the Evening Standard Award (U.K.) and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (U.S.)

Marilyn J. "Lynn" Farleigh is an English actress of stage and screen.

William Campbell Rough Bryden was a Scottish stage and film director and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medieval theatre</span> Theatrical performances in the Middle Ages

Medieval theatre encompasses theatrical performance in the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century. The category of "medieval theatre" is vast, covering dramatic performance in Europe over a thousand-year period. A broad spectrum of genres needs to be considered, including mystery plays, morality plays, farces and masques. The themes were almost always religious. The most famous examples are the English cycle dramas, the York Mystery Plays, the Chester Mystery Plays, the Wakefield Mystery Plays, and the N-Town Plays, as well as the morality play known as Everyman. One of the first surviving secular plays in English is The Interlude of the Student and the Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Carter (actor)</span> English actor

James Edward Carter is an English actor, best known for his role as Mr Carson in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012–2015). He reprised the role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) and starred as the main villain Rookery in The Little Vampire and its 2017 remake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">York Mystery Plays</span> Annual series of plays in 14th–16th century York, England

The York Mystery Plays, more properly the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of 48 mystery plays or pageants covering sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgment. They were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi and were performed in the city of York, from the mid-fourteenth century until their suppression in 1569. The plays are one of four virtually complete surviving English mystery play cycles, along with the Chester Mystery Plays, the Towneley/Wakefield plays and the N-Town plays. Two long, composite, and late mystery pageants have survived from the Coventry cycle and there are records and fragments from other similar productions that took place elsewhere. A manuscript of the plays, probably dating from between 1463 and 1477, is still intact and stored at the British Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rintoul</span> Scottish actor

David Rintoul is a Scottish stage and television actor. Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

PLS, or Poculi Ludique Societas, the Medieval & Renaissance Players of Toronto, sponsors productions of early plays, from the beginnings of medieval drama to as late as the middle of the seventeenth century.

Peter Gill is a Welsh theatre director, playwright, and actor. He was born in Cardiff to George John and Margaret Mary Gill, and educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Morahan</span> British director (1929–2017)

Christopher Thomas Morahan CBE was a British stage and television director and production executive.

William Dudley is a British theatre designer.

<i>Trelawny of the Wells</i>

Trelawny of the "Wells" is an 1898 comic play by Arthur Wing Pinero. It tells the story of a theatre star who attempts to give up the stage for love, but is unable to fit into conventional society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Donachie</span> Scottish actor

Ronald Eaglesham Porter, known professionally as Ron Donachie, is a Scottish actor. He is known for starring as DI John Rebus in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of the Ian Rankin "Rebus" detective novels and for his supporting roles in films The Jungle Book (1994), Titanic and television series Doctor Who and Game of Thrones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Mackintosh</span>

Iain Mackintosh is a British practitioner of theatre combining four interwoven careers as theatre producer, theatre space designer, curator of theatre painting and architecture exhibitions, and author and lecturer on both modern and eighteenth century theatre. He has campaigned for the retention and restoration of historic theatres as working homes for live performance.

Claire Benedict is a British actress known for her work in classical productions on the British stage, but best known for portraying the principal character Mma Ramotswe in the continuing radio adaptations of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. She won a Time Out Award for Best Performance for her portrayal of Sophia Adams in Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, directed by Maya Angelou. She lives in Todmorden in the Pennines.

References

  1. "£7m a year not unfair". The Times. 12 February 1985. p. 4.
  2. "theatricalia the mysteries". theatricalia.com. 1985. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  3. Normington, Katie (October 2007). Modern mysteries: contemporary productions of medieval English cycle dramas. Melton, Suffolk, England: Boydell and Brewer. p. 86. ISBN   978-1-84384-128-9.
  4. Dodsworth, Martin (9 January 1986). "A poet in the land of as if". The Guardian . London.
  5. 1 2 National Theatre (1985). "National Theatre Archive". National Theatre. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  6. National Theatre (1985). "National Theatre Archive". National Theatre. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  7. National Theatre (1985). "National Theatre Archives". National Theatre. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  8. Fay, Stephen (21 November 1999). "Theatre: The greatest story ever told" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2017.

Further reading and viewing