Young Actors Theatre Islington

Please note this is an immersive theatre experience which will require you to stand throughout the show.

Young Actors Theatre are planning their most ambitious Christmas production yet with a promenade production of the medieval Mystery Plays involving 50 young people from ages 7 to 24 years old.

A melting pot of short stories that cover, no less than the entire story of the planet from the dawn of creation to doomsday!

“The Mystery Plays”

In the 15th and 16th century the Mystery Plays were the predominant form of theatre in Britain and are the starting point for text based drama.

Staged annually in major towns and cities they comprised a cycle of dramatisations of the bible stories from creation through to doomsday. They were traditionally organised, financed and produced by the Guilds, also known as ‘mysteries’ in those, days and there was often a link between the nature of the Guild and the biblical story (or ‘mystery’) that they were responsible for e.g. the shipwrights would look after the story of Noah and the Goldsmiths would stage the story of the Magi so that their gold work could be displayed in the gifts to the infant Jesus.

They are not only a vital part of the history of drama and a crucial artefact in our understanding of the development of theatre in the western world but they remain vibrant and powerful texts for modern production; they retell perhaps our most iconic and universal stories and are full of emotion, magic, comedy and wonder. They offer performer and audience alike an immersive and unforgettable experience. Our young people will be learning to deliver middle English verse, taking on roles like God, Satan, Cain and Abel, Shepherds and sheep stealers, Angels and Devils and telling a story that begins with the beginning of the world and ends with the end of it – and explores everything in between!

Music by Simon Fraser
Adaptation by Tony Harrison