18 Aug 2025
Something very special is afoot at the Cathedral, where preparations are being made for the world premiere of The St Albans Mystery Plays this autumn.
The presentation in verse is scripted by local playwright Imogen de la Bere and reflects its St Albans setting, which of course is the location of the martyrdom of Britain’s first ever saint.
Mystery plays are a tradition dating back to the 13th century. Originally written by medieval monks in the language of the time Middle English, the plays enacted Old and New Testament stories for congregations who couldn’t otherwise understand or follow services conducted in Latin.
Imogen is perhaps better known as Lay Minister at St Saviour’s Church in St Albans. The four scenes from the Bible she has chosen to depict are The Creation, Mr and Mrs Noah, The Crucifixion, and The Final Judgement.
“I’ve been working on plays based around St Albans characters for some time,” says Imogen, “starting with Boudicca at Verulamium in 2014 – the first play put on in the Roman Theatre since Roman times!”
She said she approached the task by reading lots of the existing Mystery Plays, in the original Middle English and in translation, and watched some versions online.
“Then I put all the books down and let the writer loose. I have deliberately avoided rhyme, though Mystery Plays are commonly written in rhyme, because I think it has a deadening effect on them as theatre, and makes them a bit quaint,” she said.
The St Albans Mystery Plays will be performed in the Nave of the Cathedral, just as they were in places of worship nearly 800 years ago. Then the plays were staged on lavishly decorated carts, and included earthy humour and fruity wit, quickly becoming a highlight of the church’s year.
Director Philip Reardon has wanted to get this project off the ground for some years: “Mystery plays speak to universal human themes in ways that are accessible to all.
“While their medieval worldview may differ from ours, their emotional truths remain powerfully relevant, and offer a fresh lens on enduring moral and ethical questions.
“Our staging of The St Albans Mystery Plays is important,” Philip adds, “because it revives a deep-rooted tradition that connects the city’s rich religious, historical, and cultural heritage with thepresent day.”
By the 14 thcentury, the increasingly bawdy nature of the mystery plays proved too much for the Catholic Church, and the plays were moved into the streets and market places under the auspices of the considerably less sensitive crafts guilds. Different guilds would be responsible for different episodes of the plays, for instance the grocers, millers and bakers performing the Last Supper, and the ironmongers undertaking The Crucifixion.
After Henry VIII’s Reformation in the 16th century, however, the now Protestant Church banned the mystery plays altogether and they disappeared from the church calendar for more than 500 years, until they started to be revived in the 20th century.
As producer, Hazel Ireson has worked long and hard to bring The St Albans Mystery Plays to the Cathedral.
Hazel says: “It’s going to be a wonderful evening. The Hollywood director, Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), a former chorister at the Cathedral, will open the evening with words of welcome and a potted history of mystery plays.
“Drinks, including mead, will be served and some authentic snacks. The audience will then be led by costumed medieval dancers and musicians into the Nave where the performance will take place.
“The four short plays will be performed in the nave aisle, from a moveable wagon and from a Nave platform. Dancers, singers, and musicians will intersperse the plays, with trumpeters playing from the organ loft.”
The production will draw on actors from all over the district and from within the Cathedral community.
Cathedral guide Stephen de Silva, arguably an an old hand at this sort of thing, is one of three people playing God in this production: “God needs to be mysterious, majestic, kind and relatable – quite a tall order but I’m working on it,” he says.
David Bevan has the unenviable job of bringing Lucifer to life, so he is grateful for the funny bits: “Usually in mystery plays there’s a fair degree of humour to undermine the dark side so hopefully Lucifer won’t be too scary or hateful – more a figure of ridicule.”
He explained the appeal of these productions: “Mystery plays were among the UK’s earliest forms of organised drama, and the energetic and often irreverent action provided a degree of catharsis in a society largely driven by religious dogma.
“It’s great to have these traditions given an update and for St Albans to have its own mystery plays following the likes of Coventry, Chester and Wakefield.”
And well-known local actress Anna MacLeod Franklin will depict Eve: “Eve is so often reduced to a symbol of temptation and sin but I try to approach her as a real human being who faces the complexity of choice.
“We all make stupid decisions sometimes. To me she is just unequivocally human, an everywoman who feels true and relatable to a modern audience.”
Hazel Ireson’s other hat is as Membership Secretary of The Friends of St Albans Cathedral, an independent charity providing financial and practical support to the Cathedral. This evening is a promotion by the Friends to raise the profile of its work and to recruit new members in addition to its over one thousand current Friends.
The St Albans Mystery Plays will be staged on Friday November 7, beginning at 7pm, in St Albans Cathedral. Tickets cost £20 and are available from the Cathedral website at: stalbanscathedral.org, by phone from the Box Office on 01727 890290, or in person at the Cathedral shop during opening hours. More information from: friends@stalbanscathedral.org
