The York Mystery Plays are a cycle of 48 short plays dramatising Biblical scenes from the Creation to the Last Judgement, written in Middle English and first performed in York in the late 14th century. They were performed annually by the city's trade guilds — each guild responsible for a play related to their craft (the shipwrights did Noah's Ark, the goldsmiths the Magi) — until they were suppressed during the Reformation in 1572. A scholarly revival in 1951 brought them back, and they have been performed at intervals since then, usually in the grounds of the Museum Gardens or at the Minster.
The plays are performed every four years in full cycle and in shorter versions in other years. When they are on, performances in the Museum Gardens ruins — with the roofless St Mary's Abbey providing a genuinely medieval setting at dusk — are one of the more memorable theatrical experiences in the north of England. Check the York Mystery Plays website for the current performance schedule before visiting.