This is a film documenting a performance of the Wakefield Mystery Plays at three locations in Wakefield city centre. It shows the making of the costumes, the construction of the sets and parts of some of the plays and processions, put on by separate groups of actors, including local schools. Title: 'Performance in the Precinct' The film opens in the town centre of Wakefield with a stall and women handing out leaflets for a new production of the Wakefield Mystery Plays, to be...

This is a film documenting a performance of the Wakefield Mystery Plays at three locations in Wakefield city centre. It shows the making of the costumes, the construction of the sets and parts of some of the plays and processions, put on by separate groups of actors, including local schools. Title: 'Performance in the Precinct' The film opens in the town centre of Wakefield with a stall and women handing out leaflets for a new production of the Wakefield Mystery Plays, to be performed in full and through the streets of Wakefield for the first time since medieval times. A group of children watch a Punch and Judy show, followed by women in clogs performing traditional dances. A group of people are in a room discussing the production whilst the narrator explains that the Wakefield Plays consist of 29 plays covering the Bible stories from creation to doomsday. Each play is performed by a separate cast, with 250 actors in all, to be mounted as a single dramatic event. Then it moves on to see two women going through plans for the costumes, and actors trying on several of the costumes. At Outwood Grange School, there are dress rehearsals outdoors. The film then goes on to show the construction of some of the props like the 'hell mouth. They are using traditional medieval materials, and drawings of these props are shown. There is then the construction of a set outside Wakefield Cathedral. The narrator explains the kind of acting that is required in this kind of play, exaggerating diction and gesture. As the actors arrive to put on their costumes, in the town centre children play bells, and there are Morris dancers, women clog dancers and other musicians. A boy puts some money into a collecting tin. There is mixed country dancing performed to a fiddle player, the 'Old Pennies'. The actors make their way to the stage where the Bishop of Wakefield opens proceedings. The film shows parts of the first play enacting the battle between God and Lucifer, and the story of Adam and Eve, in front of an audience in the rain. Then comes the procession for the Cain and Abel play, making its way through the city centre headed by a banner with 'QEGS' (Queen Elizabeth Grammar School), with pantomime horses. This is followed by the procession for Noah's Ark in which children wear animal masks. The next story is of Abraham and Isaac. Rodillion School arrive prior to the performance of Jacob and his two sons. The Exodus from Egypt and Outwood Grange School arrive for the performance of the story of Herod. It then moves on to the birth of Christ, the flight into Egypt, with the Brotherton Players, and to the story of Lazarus, and to finish the first day, the Last Supper. At the beginning of the second day, the Mayor arrives to watch the enactment of the crucifixion. Then Wakefield College of Art arrive to put on a production of Christ's descent into hell to rescue the prophets trapped in limbo. This is followed by the Resurrection, and the Ascension Play, with the Ackworth Theatre Workshop and the Proscenium Players Leeds. The cycle of plays closes with the Last Judgement, with the Bingley Little Theatre, and the players leave in a procession. Closing Credits: Filmed by V Robinson M V Stewart R G Stewart Commentary by Jane Oakshott Richard Rastall Sound recording by R G Stewart M Borrill S Borrill The End