|
Southwark Mysteries is a community arts organisation, offering creative ways for people to interact with their inner-city environment. Over the last decade the group has conducted historical walks, story-telling and drama workshops, and produced plays, festivals and site-specific events.
On Easter Sunday in 2000, the group put on a community production of The Southwark Mysteries, a new ‘Southwark Cycle’ of Mystery Plays, written by local playwright John Constable and published by Oberon Books. It was performed to a capacity audience in Shakespeare’s Globe and Southwark Cathedral. The play is inspired by the medieval Mystery Plays, which adapted Bible stories to their own time and place. Rooted in the history of Bankside, this epic Cycle presents a contemporary, inclusive vision of forgiveness and healing.
 
Following the success of the production in 2000, Simon Hughes MP suggested a revival every ten years, like the famous Oberamergau Passion Play and Southwark Mysteries is now establishing the funding, project management and strategic partnerships to revive The Southwark Mysteries in 2010. This flagship community production will develop through a 3-year programme of guided walks, drama workshops, and performances. The first three public workshops have already taken place at the new Bankside Community Space with fantastic feedback from participants.
This new production of The Southwark Mysteries is open to residents and people who work in the Bankside area, local businesses, arts and community organisations, and anyone with an interest in the history and living culture of London’s oldest Borough. The group will be actively encouraging the participation of ethnic minorities, the young unemployed, people with disabilities and other traditionally marginalised groups. The plays will be developed in workshops and rehearsals by a core group of professionals working with the community cast.
There are countless ways you could be involved in this exciting community drama, including offering your professional skills in fundraising, marketing, legal and financial advice or support with rehearsal or even performance space in the run up to 2010. Or perhaps you’d like to be involved in the creative side of the production?
|
