GOD chatted to Lucifer and Jesus touched base with his mother Mary.
This was no modern version of the Bible but the first meeting of the cast of this year’s Chester Mystery Plays at St Mary’s Centre in Chester on Sunday.
Director Peter Leslie Wild expressed his excitement at finally being on the road to making it happen.
He said: “There was a huge air of enthusiasm and commitment and a real sense of anticipation.
“To have more than 100 actors plus a chorus of singers all in the same room at the same time was amazing.
He added: “It has already been a long journey to get to this point as we had our first workshop back in November 2011.”
The Chester Mystery Plays are performed in the city every five years. They were originally written in medieval times by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Werburgh (now Chester Cathedral) and were banned in the 16th century for being too bawdy.
The plays were revived in 1951 to celebrate the Festival of Britain and have been performed in the city approximately every five years since then.
A new script has been commissioned for the 2013 production, written by Stephanie Dale, who was inspired by workshops with local people.
Peter added: “There are scenes in the script which have come directly from workshops and auditions. There is a scene, for example, before the flood, when a group of revellers are having a wonderful time in a pub. This came directly out of hearing a lady singing pub songs and actors’ ideas have been hugely important in the development of the script.”
Peter also expressed his delight at hearing some of Matt Baker’s music for the first time. He said: “I was amazed at how far Matt has got with his chorus in such a short time.”
Tickets for the production are on sale at www.chestermysteryplays.com, 01244 500959.
