Mystery plays from Old Testament put into print (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Mystery plays from Old Testament put into print

A SERIES of Old Testament mystery plays, written by a Blockley man for performance in the village, has been published in book form.

The plays by retired teacher Don Jowett were enjoyed by more than 1,000 people when they were first staged this summer.

Although the plays were performed by local amateurs, the plays had the advantage of a professional production team headed by Lovejoy actor Chris Jury.

"I simply volunteered innocently to find and adapt an existing script," said Mr Jowett.

"I was unable to find one, so as I was too cowardly to confess as much to Chris Jury I started to scribble."

Although he had the advantage of not having to invent any characters or plots, Mr Jowett said he still had to do some tweaking to provide continuity.

"This mainly involved using Satan and his sidekick Beelzebub to link the stories and include conflict and humour."

He added that he hoped the book would enable other organisations to perform the plays without first having to find an author.

The book also includes a description of how the Blockley plays were created, photographs of the performances and full stage directions. Copies of the book at £6 are available from Blockley Mystery Plays Ltd, The Old Royal Oak, High Street, Blockley, GL56 9EX.