Reviews Sheffield Published 21 July 2014

The Sheffield Mysteries

Crucible Theatre ⋄ 15th - 19th July 2014

Passion play.

John Murphy

The Sheffield People’s Theatre has quickly become as much of a mainstay in the Crucible’s yearly listings as their big autumnal Shakespeare production or their Christmas musical. Formed in 2012, as part of the theatre’s 40th birthday celebrations, the Sheffield Mysteries marks the company’s third production, following the inaugural Lives In Art and last year’s excellent 20 Tiny Plays About Sheffield.

The Sheffield Mysteries is the company’s most ambitious production to date. Featuring a 91 strong cast of local amateurs, aged between 12 and 86 years old, the Mysteries sees writer Chris Bush takes the Medieval tradition of performing biblical stories onstage and gives it a modern twist with a local flavour. Bush presents these stories as a series of vignettes, which at first seem unrelated, but which end up interlinked.

Adam and Eve have been recast as a pair of local teenagers meeting in a club on West Street, Christ becomes a star striker seemingly about to sign for a local football team and The Last Supper is recreated by a group of construction workers. Yet, as Bush himself says in the programme notes, this is a piece of theatre which celebrates the power of community rather than the power of religion.

Daniel Evans marshalls the enormous cast through 16 separate ‘mysteries’ in just over two hours. As ever with this type of production, it’s something of a mixed bag with some stories working better than others, but when it hits the mark the effect is quite joyous. A recreation of the Noah Ark story set at a market stall is a marvel of wordplay and comic delivery and staging the story of Christ before Annas and Caiaphas as a spectacular rap battle is a particularly inspired moment.

There’s a sharp political edge to much of The Sheffield Mysteries, and it’s not all particularly subtle. Pontius Pilate is recreated as a local politician wearing a yellow tie who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nick Clegg while a Thatcherite woman in a red dress is the villain of the piece, shouting in a loud, hectoring voice about the joys of capitalism and preaching against community spirit. Just in case you still hadn’t got the message, her character’s called Lucy, which may or may not be short for Lucifer. That political content gives the show its focus though, especially in the second half – the first half seems a bit all over the place at times – and although it may be preaching to the converted to bash the Conservative Party in South Yorkshire, Bush’s passion runs deep through the script and produces many knowing laughs in the audience.

The sheer enthusiasm and passion of the ensemble is a joy to behold. There are some small issues – being an amateur cast, there are some problems with voice projection on such a large stage, and now and again the music drowns out some lines of dialogue – but Evans handles his actors with his usual panache and style. It’s also inspiring to see how the young children in the cast adapt to their roles with such natural charm and skill.

You don’t have to be familiar with the city to enjoy The Sheffield Mysteries but this is unashamedly aimed at a local audience – even Richard Kent’s ingenious set design is a local reference, with seven hills (on which Sheffield is based) acting as both a backdrop to the action and as an entry and exit point for the many actors. Bush, Evans and the community cast have produced an energetic, uplifting and at times audacious piece of work which does the city it celebrates proud.

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John Murphy

John is the former editor of, and current contributor to, musicOMH. He lives in Sheffield, in the shadow of the famous Crucible and Lyceum theatres, and also reviews in nearby Leeds and Manchester. John is also a huge fan of stand-up comedy, and can be often be found in one of Sheffield's comedy clubs, laughing like a madman.

The Sheffield Mysteries Show Info


Produced by The Sheffield People's Theatre

Directed by Daniel Evans

Written by Chris Bush

Link http://sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/

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