The York Cycle of mystery plays is the main feature of the triennial York Festival.

The cycle is a collection of forty eight plays, telling the story of man's history from before the creation of the world to the time after the world ceases to be.

There is evidence of their existence in various forms since 1350 and originally they were produced by the Craft Gilds of the city. Even today the plays are staged in the costume and language of medieval York.

The plays are acted in the open in what was the nave of St. Mary's Abbey, parts of which date from 1272.

The main aim of the production was and is, to teach the Christian faith and the dominating theme is God's love for mankind. The Trinity has been emphasized by one actor, John Westbrook, playing the parts of both God and Christ.

This year there was no organized school trip to the festival, however, many of us made our own way to York. Unfortunately, the weather broke soon after the interval and the remainder of the plays had to be cancelled in view of the evening performance, so we were unable to see the crucifixion which is generally considered to be the dramatic climax of the cycle.

Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the parts we saw and look forward to going again if the opportunity arises.

The 15th and 19th of July saw the revival, after a four year lapse, of the House Drama Competition. However, this year the competition took on a much extended form, each house entered both a Senior and Junior play, and actors and back-stage helpers were recruited from the appropriate sections of school. Another important modification lay in the authorship of the plays presented. Previously plays had been written by a senior member of each house, a practice which had varying success. To avoid any cast being unduly penalised by a badly written play, for not every house has a budding Pinter working among its ranks after all, the choice of play to be produced was made from a selection of well-known scenes and one-act plays.

The Junior competition was held on the 15th July under the adjudication of Mrs. Barber. The competition was won by Graham's entry, the play scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream". A good all-round production, the play's humour was particularly well handled, the main characters were often ludicrous yet never grotesque.

Mrs. Barber's helpful comments to the junior casts must have helped the producers of the senior plays, which were performed the following Tuesday. We were pleased to welcome Mr. Barret from The Margaret McMillan College of Education who came to adjudicate for us. Garbutt's entry, the quarrel scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" won the senior competition, narrowly beating Graham's production of "St. Joan", one of the three extracts from Shaw in the Festival.

The large cast and medieval setting of the "St. Joan" contrasted sharply with Shakespeare's quarrel scene, in which the attention of the audience was focused on only four principal characters. Such a concentration on the conflict between four lovers required, and achieved, a very high standard of acting and production.

Special commendation should be given to all the many people behind the scenes, in stage management, scenery, costumes and lighting, whose extra effort helped to make the new drama festival such a success.

Ever since Mr. Wilson announced that there was to be a General Election on March 31st, 1966, there was a certain amount of rumour to the effect that the school was going to have a "Mock Election". On Friday, March 11th the rumours were realized—a meeting was held by Mrs. Jenkins for all those who were "interested in taking part in a mock election". The meeting was well attended and enthusiasm was apparent, especially in the Junior Sixth. At this meeting the returning officers and party agents were elected. There were two party agents to each party which were Communist, Conservative, Labour and Liberal.

During the following week there was a meeting for each party to elect their candidate and forward the results to the returning officers. The candidates were, Karin Barber to represent the Communist party, Ann Wadsworth for the Conservatives, Alison Jole for the Labour party and Pamela Metcalfe for the Liberal party. Posters appeared of Harold Wilson assuring us that "You know Labour Government Works" and Edward Heath demanding "Action not Words". We were advice to "Go with Jo" (Grimmond) and numerous hammer-and-sickles promising "New Britain, Peoples' Britain" for the Communist Party also appeared.

General out-door meetings followed from every party and hearty heckling accompanied each. Although the weather left much to be desired, the meetings gathered quite a crowd and speakers and audiences shouted approval and abuse from thick duffle coats and assorted winter scarves. Election fever had gripped the school in earnest; friend fought friend and became temporary enemy. The posters of the party leaders and general policy were unfortunately and unnecessarily disfigured and some were even torn, but on the whole the fight was clean and enjoyed by all.

On March 31st, while the public voted for their candidate in the gym cloakroom on the South Drive, a general meeting was held in the hall when all four candidates delivered a final speech to fourth, fifth and sixth forms. This was quite orderly until the conservative candidate began to speak and then, in spite of repeated requests for quiet from the returning officers, heckling began anew, both jeering and cheering. As soon as the bell was heard at ten minutes to one, three streams of girls rushed to enter their vote before they went for dinner and as soon as the two o'clock bell went, voting stopped and counting began so that the results could be put on the notice-board before four o'clock.

During the dinner-hour there was an amusing and rather pointless incident when a member of the public insisted that inhabitants of the annexe were breaking the law by having posters up. No amount of assurance that this was a MOCK election would satisfy him until the posters had been taken down. Miss Leach escorted him out just as he was about to call the police and relative peace reigned once more. The results were put up some time during Thursday afternoon reading Karin 62, Ann 143, Alison 122 and Pamela 112. This, however, was not a prediction of national results as Mr. Wilson retained his home at Number Ten.

I should like to thank Mrs. Jenkins, on behalf of everybody who took part, for making all the arrangements. Everybody enjoyed it and friendships have been renewed once again (I hope). Friday seemed rather quiet in spite of the prospect of the holiday and everybody sat back and breathed a sigh of relief that at last it was over for a year or two at least.

JEAN WHITELEY, 3VI.

This year's Junior Carol Service and Nativity Play was held at the end of the first term. For many years the first formers have produced a Nativity play of extremely good quality and this year's production was no exception. A lot of hard work is put into the production of these plays, both by the English Staff and the girls. The first formers are always very enthusiastic and their exuberance is reflected in their acting.

This year's play was entitled "The Rose of Christ". It told how a poor widow's child, Martha, could not visit the Christ Child in the stable, because she had no gift for him. An Angel appeared to Martha and gave her a white rose to give to Jesus. Martha's humble present of a flower was just as acceptable as all the other gifts.