Religious, artisitic, economic, and political aspects of the York Corpus Christi Plays
From an article I published in 1997, back when I thought I was pretty hot stuff to include postage-stamp-sized video clips on a website. The website also featured a Java simulation of the outdoor pageant that celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi (which is today).
The outdoor theatrical event in the medieval city of York, England, known to its performers and audiences as the "Corpus Christi Play," is a collection of brief religious plays that together represent the story of Christian salvation. The York cycle is one of four that have survived in more or less complete form. The others are known as Chester, Wakefield, (after the cities where they were performed) and N-Town (now identified with no known city, but formerly identified as Townley). The York cycle was performed nearly every year, on the feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for the Body of Christ). The plays were already an established tradition in the late 14th century, and they continued in one form or other (weakened by Protestant censorship) until the mid-to-late 16th century.
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..and continue today, more or less (or have since 2002). i got to see the 2006 cycle in York -- my favorite memory of that trip to England. :)
I'd love to see it in York... I did see a test run when Toronto did a handful of plays around 1995 or so. Then they did the whole cycle again around 1998, but by then I had left Toronto, and wasn't able to make the trip back. It's good to know the tradition is continuing, though.