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HISTORY I Jesus College Annual Report 2022
Resurrecting a tradition: ‘A Type of Christ’ Undergraduate student in English, Anika Goddard (2021), writes about the challenges she faced directing the Jesus College Mystery Play this year Directing the Jesus College Mystery Play came with the peculiar terror of 700 years (give or take) of performance history. Most of the plays we eventually settled on had been part of the fabric of English theatrical tradition hundreds of years longer than Shakespeare and would have had a significant impact on how their medieval audiences experienced faith. We knew, too, that we were reviving an old College tradition, and had the gorgeous costume designs and effective set design of the 1956 production of Felix Culpa to live up to, so no pressure at all, really! Costume designers Megan and Lily noted that, “We tried to pay homage to the designs for the last Jesus College Mystery Play as well as incorporating our own ideas. It was so much fun looking at medieval paintings for inspiration.” Having such a rich history to draw on also helped us as Directors to put our all
into organising the plays, both creatively and logistically. Co-directing as a team of three not only helped with the workload, but ensured that all three of us brought different, but cohesive passions to the table. Niamh Bradshaw had picked up on the fascinating prevalence of women in the plays of the Chester cycle, particularly in times of mourning, and wanted to amplify those voices further. Nathan Brooks was interested in the way in which the York Crucifixion is framed as four men at work – until they raise the cross and you realise that they’re casually crucifying Jesus – and spliced it into the other Chester plays. I focused on the divine motif of God gradually coming closer to the audience throughout the cycle, beginning as a disembodied voice for Noah’s Deluge and ending as Jesus directly serving the audience drinks after The Resurrection. We had always planned to perform the
Angel (Tom Chandler) and God (Zahra Shaikh) in Abraham and Isaac
