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.
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.
..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. :)