In 1992 Glenn Buglass, then Director of Lichfield Arts Centre, was given £2000 to make a community arts project. His dream was to stage some of the medieval mystery plays, and he invited Robert Leach to become Artistic Director of the project while he became Executive Producer.
They began with the 'Lichfield Fragments', now in the possession of Shrewsbury School. This document, dating back to 1430, seems to be the script of one actor who was Third Shepherd in the play of The Shepherds and Third Mary in The Resurrection. It also contains several sung interludes from other pageants which were probably originally performed in Lichfield.
Using these as a very partial skeleton, Robert created a whole integrated cycle of dramas from other existing medieval mystery plays, editing and adapting as necessary.
The final complete Lichfield Mysteries is divided into three parts:
Of Heaven and Hell and Middle Earth
, telling the story of the Old Testament,
The Getting of Grace
, centring on Jesus's nativity, and
Drops Of Blood
, which recounts Jesus's passion, death and resurrection. The plays (or 'pageants') are preceded by a
Prologue
and concluded with an epilogue,
Doomsday
. The first part thus has an epic quality ranging from the Creation through the escape of the Israelites from Egypt to the time of the prophets; the second part is an intimate family drama (though with obvious wider implications); and the third part is - dramatically speaking - a tragedy.