SOURCE: "Playing the Resurrection," in Medieval Studies for J. A. W. Bennett, edited by P. L. Heyworth, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1981, pp. 273-96.

In the following excerpt, Twycross describes the reconstruction of the production of the Resurrection of Christ, focusing on "what happens to the play in performance." Emphasizing the active involvement of the audience in the performance and the physical closeness of audience and actors, Twycross maintains that the Resurrection playwright made his audience aware of the part they played in the drama, engaging them directly in the emotional dynamics of the pageant.

This essay is about the performance of a medieval English mystery play, and what it showed me, the producer, about the way in which these plays seem to work dramatically. The play was the York Carpenters' pageant of The Resurrection of Christ, performed in March 1977 in the Nuffield Theatre Studio of the University...