Mission

Tomorrow night will be the final performance of the 2008 Chester Mystery Plays after a three-week run on Chester Cathedral Green.

JO HENWOOD talks to mystery plays chairman Jo Sykes about Chester’s largest theatrical event for years.

FIVE years in the planning, seven months in rehearsals and only three performances left.

The Chester Mystery Plays, the city’s quinquennial medieval pageant, will come to an end on Saturday with a matinee performance of The Prophecy at 1pm and an evening performance of The Fulfilment at 7.30pm.

The plays have been watched by 13,000 people and chairman Jo Sykes is looking forward to a well-earned holiday.

“I am so proud of the production and the superb performances,” she said.

“It’s an exciting and unique piece of theatre and something very special for Chester.

“Artistically, the plays have been very successful and we’ve had great national reviews and superb local coverage.”

With a budget of £400,000, an amateur cast, children and animals, it was never going to be an easy ride and Jo admits to some hiccups early on in rehearsals.

“It’s such an ambitious project and there were times when I thought we had bitten off more than we could chew,” she admits.

“We will definitely break even and may even make a small profit thanks to the huge support from our sponsors, especially Chester City Council, which has been tremendously helpful.”

The plays receive in the region of £100,000 worth of sponsorship and are performed outdoors on a professionally designed set on Chester Cathedral Green.

The Great British weather is one of the few elements that Jo has no control over.

“We could never have expected to have three weeks without any rain in Chester in July,” said Jo. “We were devastated to have to cancel the preview night of The Prophecy and one performance of The Fulfilment but the safety of the cast is of paramount importance.”

Ideally Jo says her dream would be to perform the plays under a canopy but the cost is too prohibitive without a very generous sponsor.

“We could consider taking the plays indoors but where?” asks Jo. “And I do feel that they would lose something if they were performed inside. The Medieval plays were performed on pageant wagons on the streets of Chester and I think it is important that they continue to be performed outside.”

An open-air venue comes with other problems. Security on site has been a great anxiety for Jo and early on in the run someone broke in to the site and stole a tent and some costumes.

“It meant that we had to get the cast to remove everything from the site each night and decamp to one of the houses in Abbey Green. Everyone has done it with a good heart.”

She has nothing but praise for the amateur actors who have committed most of this year so far to the plays.

“We couldn’t have worked with a better cast,” she said.

“We took a chance with some new people who have more than realised their potential.”

The level of commitment required, however, is something she is keen to review for 2013.

“Ten per cent of the cast are happy to live in the rehearsal room for 24 hours a day. The others have families, jobs and other commitments and the rehearsal schedule was very demanding.”

Talking of the future, Jo and the mystery plays board will soon be making plans for five years hence.

“We have our AGM in September and then one of the first jobs is to secure finance and sponsorship for the 2013 production,” she said.

Artistic Director Robin Goddard, who directed the plays in 2003 and 2008, has indicated that he probably won’t do them again so in about 2010 the board will advertise for a director and musical director.

“I think that music enhances the plays and brings them into the 21st century,” said Jo. “I know that some of the purists don’t like it but it brings in audiences and attracts younger people to the plays.”

Musical director for both the 2003 and the 2008 productions was Matt Baker.

When the proverbial curtain comes down on tomorrow’s shows, a Mediterranean cruise beckons for Jo and husband Kevin.

Refreshed and back in Chester in September she will then throw herself into organising a special concert version of the plays for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture at the city’s Anglican cathedral.

This is the first time the company will “go on the road” with the mystery plays and the first time that they will have been performed in a church since the modern revival in 1951.

The Chester Mystery Plays concert version will be performed at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral on October 10 and 11.