
Playing a Part in History
The York Mysteries, 1951 - 2006
Margaret Rogerson(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Will be published approx. on 4. April 2009
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-8020-9924-2 (ISBN)
Description
The York Mystery Plays are a cycle of originally performed on wagons in the city. They date from the fourteenth century and Biblical narrative from Creation to Last Judgment. After nearly four hundred years without a performance, a revival of the York Mysteries began in 1951 when local amateurs led by professional theatre practitioners staged them during the festival of Britain. Playing a Part in History examines the ways in which the revival of these plays transformed them for twentieth- and twenty-first-century audiences.
Considering such topics as the contemporary popularity of the plays, the agendas of the revivalists, and major production differences, Margaret Rogerson provides a fascinating comparison of medieval and modern English drama. Drawing extensively on archival material, and newspaper and academic reviews of the plays in recent years, Playing a Part in History is not only an illuminating account of early English drama, but also of the ways in which theatre allows people to interact with the past.
Considering such topics as the contemporary popularity of the plays, the agendas of the revivalists, and major production differences, Margaret Rogerson provides a fascinating comparison of medieval and modern English drama. Drawing extensively on archival material, and newspaper and academic reviews of the plays in recent years, Playing a Part in History is not only an illuminating account of early English drama, but also of the ways in which theatre allows people to interact with the past.
Reviews / Votes
'Rogerson's new study is of great interest... It is a very human story with a serious academic purpose... The author can be congratulated on a work which is far more than a narrative of a city's collective efforts at a dramatic revival.' - D.M. Palliser, Northern History: vol67:02:10More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8020-9924-2 (9780802099242)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Margaret Rogerson is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Sydney.