Friends of the Chester Mystery Plays have started fundraising for the 2018 production, just five months after the curtain came down on this year’s cycle.
More than 80 friends gathered at Crewe Hill, by kind permission of Michael and Inger Trevor-Barnston, for a festive event to begin raising funds for the next historic quinquennial event.
Chairman of Chester Mystery Plays Jo Sykes said: “Needless to say we were also celebrating the success of the 2013 production performed earlier this year in the nave of Chester Cathedral to great public acclaim.”
The Friends were joined at Crewe Hill by Lord Mayor of Chester Councillor Jill Houlbrook, the Lady Mayoress Mrs Rachel Walker, the Lord Bishop of Chester the Right Reverend Dr Peter Forster and Mrs Elisabeth Forster.
The evening was organised by Inger Trevor-Barnston, a director of the Chester Mystery Plays Company, and raised in the region of £1,400.
The original Chester Mystery Plays were written by Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Werburgh (now Chester Cathedral) in the 14th century. They were performed by the guilds in medieval Chester on pageant wagons trundled around the city streets.
There were originally 24 guilds, each responsible for their own play, including the Water Leaders & Drawers of the Dee, the Hewsters (Dyers), the Tanners, the Saddlers and the Curriers.
The 2013 production was directed by Peter Leslie Wild with original music by Matt Baker.
