The York Cycle: 1977

Abstract

On 1 and 2 October 1977 the entire surviving text of the York Cycle of mystery plays was performed on the campus of the University of Toronto. The event was co-ordinated by a committee made up, on the whole, of graduate students associated with the Poculi Ludique Societas, the medieval play troupe of the Centre for Medieval Studies. I was chairman of that committee and, as such, undertook the co-ordinating function of the mayor of York while the committee fulfilled the role of the city council. Under the supervision of these officials, from at least 1376 until the suppression in 1569, the long series of forty-seven pageants dramatizing biblical history from Creation to the Last Judgment was performed by the craft guilds of the city. Our production, though marred by heavy rain on 1 October and generally cold weather, was an extraordinary event. Such was its impact in human and community terms that I had difficulty in assessing its academic value in the immediate postproduction period. It has taken the passage of a busy academic year, many discussions with my colleagues and students, and three long and thoughtful reviews to bring me to the point of writing this article. Time has given me perspective and the discussions and reviews have clarified in my mind what we intended to accomplish and what we learned from the enterprise.