BYU-Idaho’s Theatre Department is set to present its second fall semester play “A Medieval Christmas Pageant: The York Cycle.” The York Cycle, also known as the York Corpus Christi Plays, is a collection of short Middle English plays dating back to the 14th Century.
The 48 plays in the cycle cover religious history from the time of creation to the last judgement. It is unclear who wrote the plays, but they were very popular with medieval audiences. BYU-Idaho’s rendition of The York Cycle seeks to entertain and help audience members remember the true meaning of Christmas.
One of the distinctive features of the play is that it has three directors Josh Leukhardt, Janice Munk and Justin Bates who have different visions coming together as one. In a recent BYU-Idaho interview Munk mentioned how that process has fared so far.
“It’s been a good process. They've been great to work with. We've talked about what the overall purpose, of the show was, that we wanted to make sure we were all on the same page for that,” Munk said.
Munk also talked about the purpose for three directors instead of one.
“One of the reasons we had three directors is that back in the medieval times, when they would perform the York Cycle, they would perform on pageant wagons, and each of the Cycle plays was performed by a different guild in the community. So, there would be the thatchers doing one play, the spicers doing another. And so, we wanted to stay true to, that style,” Munk said.
The play’s assistant director, David Higginbotham who has the difficult job of keeping all the directors notes to make their visions come to life, said another unique aspect of the show is the depth the story goes into the characters' lives.
“We all know the story of the, you know, about Jesus and the shepherds and the angel, but I think something we get to dive deep into is the personal stories of these individuals,” Higginbotham said. “We get to go into the prophetess Anna and Simeon and the shepherds, and we get to see these stories from their own viewpoints that we haven't really experienced yet from the biblical story of Christ.”
The play's open week shows will go from Nov. 29 until Dec. 1 and then will run from Dec. 5 until Dec. 9. Each show will start at 7:30 p.m. in the Snow Black Box Theatre inside the Eliza R. Snow Building. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.byui.edu/ticket-office/.