The Lichfield Mysteries by Robert Leach

The Lichfield Mysteries by Robert Leach

In 1992 Glenn Buglass, then Director of Lichfield Arts Centre, was given 2000 to make a community arts project. His dream was to stage some of the medieval mystery plays, and he invited Robert Leach to become Artistic Director of the project while he became Executive Producer.

They began with the 'Lichfield Fragments', now in the possession of Shrewsbury School. This document, dating back to 1430, seems to be the script of one actor who was Third Shepherd in the play of The Shepherds and Third Mary in The Resurrection. It also contains several sung interludes from other pageants which were probably originally performed in Lichfield.

Using these as a very partial skeleton, Robert created a whole integrated cycle of dramas from other existing medieval mystery plays, editing and adapting as necessary.

The final complete Lichfield Mysteries is divided into three parts: Of Heaven and Hell and Middle Earth, telling the story of the Old Testament, The Getting of Grace, centring on Jesus's nativity, and Drops Of Blood, which recounts Jesus's passion, death and resurrection. The plays (or 'pageants') are preceded by a Prologue and concluded with an epilogue, Doomsday.
The first part thus has an epic quality ranging from the Creation through the escape of the Israelites from Egypt to the time of the prophets; the second part is an intimate family drama (though with obvious wider implications); and the third part is - dramatically speaking - a tragedy.

Leach, Robert: - Robert Leach was the first Artistic Director of the Lichfield Mysteries, and he selected and edited the plays in the cycle. He is a prize-winning poet, theatre director and academic. He has been Reader in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, and Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Edinburgh University. He has acted professionally in Britain and U.S.A., and directed plays in Russia as well as Britain. His production of I Want a Baby by Sergei Tretyakov at the Teatr u Nikitskikh Vorot in Moscow in 1990 was the Russian premiere of this 1920s play which was banned in the Communist Soviet Union for decades.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781912605491
ISBN 10	191260549X
Title	The Lichfield Mysteries
Author	Robert Leach
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Lichfield Mysteries Community Arts
Year published	2018-07-20
Number of pages	296
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.