The immemorial stories of humanity distil the drama of survival in an oral history that tells us of ourselves, the good parts and the bad parts salted with directions of what to do and not what to do as we live in a socially complex and increasingly crowded world.

Writers of all ages from 10 to, well it's rude to ask but not young, have mined the York Medieval Mystery Plays, themselves a distillation of Bible stories and hard won experience, to create new dramatic adaptations ready to be unearthed by future generations looking for new way to understand how to be human.

These poems and stories, commissioned as part of the 2026 Mystery Play Fringe as an open competition, explore floods, disaster, the beginnings of humanity and the ever present reality of war.

While celebration might not be an overt theme these poems are a celebration of the spirit of the medieval playwrights, performers and producers who first created this and many other cycles plays that still reach into us all.