Modern Mystery Plays head for Galtres Festival 2012 | Festival News

Galtres Festival has teamed up with the organisers of the York Mystery Plays to stage a series of modern takes on the ancient plays.

The festival, which runs in Crayke near York on the August bank holiday weekend, will be presenting prize-winning short plays written by York scriptwriters, based on the themes of the centuries-old mystery plays.

The medieval cycle of York Mystery Plays has been performed by the people of York across the centuries and is a world-famous part of the city’s cultural heritage. From Creation to the Last Judgment, these plays form one of the greatest stories ever told. In summer 2012, the story of God, of man and woman and of the cosmic struggle between good and evil will be presented on an epic scale against the magnificent backdrop of St Mary's Abbey in York.

Galtres Festival falls on the final weekend of the York Mystery Plays, and the organisers have got together with Script Yorkshire and the York Settlement Players to bring modern versions of the plays to the festival. Each of the short plays is a winning entry from a scriptwriting competition run by the York branch of Script Yorkshire.

The scripts will be enacted by members of the York Settlement Players and other actors throughout the Galtres Festival weekend.
"We're all really thrilled about the Modern Mysteries coming to Galtres," said Festival Director James Houston. "Galtres Festival draws heavily on the extraordinary creative talent in York and around, and each year showcases the most innovative and exciting music, theatre, and cabaret. We've worked hard to develop the quality of drama and storytelling at Galtres in recent years, and this collaboration with Script Yorkshire and the Mystery Plays will help us deliver an even better quality programme to our audience."

"Alongside the major re-staging of the York Mystery Plays at the Museum Gardens in August we were keen to find out some modern interpretations of the stories from emerging and established writers. This partnership with the Galtres Festival, a festival very much at the heart of its community, allows our script writers a unique opportunity to see their plays performed in a Festival setting," said Liam Evans-Ford, Community Producer for the York Mystery Plays.

Galtres Festival began life eight years ago as a small beer and cider festival, but has grown into a major three-day event with five music stages, attracting major bands like The Charlatans, The Lightning Seeds, Shed Seven, British Sea Power, the Levellers and others. It's set up very much as a family event, with a huge programme of activities and workshops for children and young people, as well as a feast of quality local food and around 100 Yorkshire beers and ciders to choose from.

Script Yorkshire (York) is the local branch of Script Yorkshire, an organisation which exists to promote new writing for stage, screen, TV and radio in Yorkshire. SY arranges regular workshops with experienced writers, as well as similar activities. They also organise regular 'Script Factor' competitions in York, and the Modern Mysteries coming to Galtres Festival are the winning entries from a competition involving 30 York script-writers. "I loved it [Script Factor]," said one recent audience member, Rose Drew of Stairwell Books. "It was the most fun I've had in ages. It was Theatre In the Raw, so exciting. Better than some sort of improv theatre, but with that same edge of danger.''

York Settlement Community Players, who will be presenting the Modern Mysteries at Galtres, is a thriving amateur theatre group at the heart of creative theatre in the city of York. As well as regular productions of modern and classical plays, they work closely with Script Yorkshire (York) and with York Theatre Royal to present new writing for the stage. Ged Cooper, co-ordinater of the York Branch of Script Yorkshire, said: “This was a joint project with Liam Evans-Ford at York Theatre Royal and we were thrilled that Mike Kenny, who has written the new adaptation of the York Mystery Plays, was one of the judges. It's a great chance for local writers to develop their work and see it performed.”

For the first time since 1988 in a production of this size, the main programme of Mystery Plays will return to York Museum Gardens, where a 1400 covered seat theatre will be constructed within the ancient walls of the Abbey.

Taking place in the same year that London hosts the Olympic Games, this international event will also be a major part of York’s 800th anniversary celebrations of the granting of its Civic Charter. An exciting festival atmosphere will be created both in the Gardens and throughout the city, with entertaining fringe events and a celebration of the best of Yorkshire food and drink.

Presented by York Theatre Royal, Riding Lights Theatre Company and York Museums Trust and supported by City of York Council, this bold, accessible adaptation of the Plays is by York writer Mike Kenny, who also adapted E. Nesbitt’s The Railway Children for the Olivier award-winning production by York Theatre Royal and the National Railway Museum.