Locating the Drama: Micklegate Bar and the Skinners’ Entry into Jerusalem

A site-specific performance relies on the relationship between memory and topography, exploring how the history of a locale can be conveyed to the audience through a dramatic act. By looking at the medieval performances of the York Corpus Christi Play as site-specific, this article shows how York’s topography and the daily uses of the sites along the pageant route enriched the audiences’ reception of the play. In particular, it explores the visual presence of Micklegate Bar as an aide-memoire through which Jerusalem is superimposed on York in a performance of the Skinners’ Entry into Jerusalem at the first playing station. Other factors such as staging and the presence of weekly medieval markets are also considered, including how the presence of the city’s Common Clerk at the first stopping place mimics Zacheus’ role in the pageant. In this way the performance is enriched by the specificity of York’s topography while the play recalls the memories present in the stopping places to enhance the performance.