a drama from the European Middle Ages portraying an event in the life of Jesus. Example: "The York Play of the Crucifixion," a mystery play, 3m.

The most common term referring to medieval plays developed from liturgical drama that treated biblical stories and themes. (They were also known as pageant plays in England, as passion plays when dealing with the Crucifixion of Jesus, and as Corpus Christi plays when performed in conjunction with that particular festival.) Unlike liturgical dramas, which were in Latin, mystery plays were written in the vernacular (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian versions exist) and were staged outside the church.

a medieval play representing episodes from the life of Christ

a religious dramatisation of a story from the Bible

A type of medieval cycle drama organized around significant moments from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. A cycle would usually span Creation to Doomsday and include the Fall of Adam, Noah's Flood, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Herod, and the Crucifixion. Absolon in Chaucer's Miller's Tale had played the character Herod in a mystery play. See also Morality play.

theatrical performance based on Biblical themes, carried out as a series of vignettes by members of town craft guilds, usually in outdoor locations, on the feast of Corpus Christi

Mystery plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Their origin is obscure, but the most common theory is that they developed from the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song, such as the quem quaeritis, a short musical performance set at the tomb of the risen Christ. These simple structures were developed with tropes, verbal embellishment of the liturgical text, and became more elaborate.