The Founding of Records of Early English Drama

A New Performance Strategy for a Twelve-Station, One-Day York Cycle

“…Despite a vigorous debate during the 1970s, which contributed to the founding of the Records of Early English Drama (reed), and despite multiple attempts to stage a full York cycle, that logistical mystery has still not been entirely solved. 2 At issue is the fact that the register's implied evidence for staging practices is fragmentary and spans centuries; the records simply cannot definitively confirm the long-assumed strategy of maximal procession, in which every play is performed at every station. Modern attempts to recreate the cycle have, moreover, sparked a rethinking of some of the register's evidence.…”