‘So what exactly is the mystery in the Mystery Plays?’ the husband asked recently. ‘It’s hardly a whodunit, is it?’. I told him he was a Philistine, to which he replied that actually, he was more of a Sherlock Holmes fan, although he’s still got a fondness for Morse.

Funnily enough, a character in Peter Gill’s play The York Realist, which is set against the background of the 1963 Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens, asked the same question in the recent production at the Theatre Royal. The answer – ‘Each play was done by a guild of tradesmen . . . and I suppose they had secrets’ – refers to the intricate skills of the various smiths and carpenters and builders represented by the guilds.

The different guilds each put on appropriate stories that together made up a ‘history of the world’, from the Creation to the Last Judgement. The Shipwrights, Fishers and Mariners did Noah and the Flood, the Butchers played the Death of Christ (a macabre touch) and the York mercers, who were wealthy overseas merchants, the Day of Judgement, which was always the most grand and elaborate.

If the medieval craftsmen that first put on the 48 pageant plays were secretive, what’s happening with the Mystery Plays today is still a little obscure. City of York Council has just submitted a bid for lottery funding to finance them over the next five years that begs a lot of questions and has already stirred up letter-writers, particularly over the proposal for a ‘multicultural reinterpretation’ of the plays in 2012.

I’m intrigued to see how this will play out, if you’ll excuse the pun, particularly given that the Archbishop of York has spoken out against multiculturalism, saying that it has betrayed the English and left them ‘embarrassed’ at celebrating their true national identity.

Dr Sentamu wasn’t available for comment when I contacted his office, but in an interview with The Times in November 2005 he said: ‘Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me, let other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys and its pains.’

Since auditions for the Mystery Plays are, in any case, open to people of all ages and nationalities, the targeting of specific groups – the bid also includes proposals for productions for young people and schools in 2008 and 2010 respectively – smacks to me of ticking the right boxes with the Heritage Lottery Fund.

I put this to Councillor Christian Vassie who, as the council’s new executive member for leisure and culture, is backing the bid. He agreed, citing the 2012 Olympics as a major factor in sucking money into the south east. ‘Everyone in the arts is having to work doubly hard to get any funding for anything.’

So, if this is the only way to ensure continuity of the Mystery Plays every two years (which is the objective), what exactly does a ‘multicultural reinterpretation’ of them involve? The subject is apparently still under discussion though Cllr Vassie adds, ‘I assume the organisers would be looking for York people with a different cultural background’.

He makes the point that people from other cultures bringing their own experiences to bear can make for fresh and illuminating interpretations. Shakespeare’s plays are routinely given contemporary treatments and the medieval guilds themselves were giving a regional spin to the Bible stories. ‘After all, neither Jesus nor Noah was white nor did they come from Yorkshire’.

There is also the political trump card, particularly relevant since it’s just been announced that applicants for British passports may have to ‘earn’ their citizenship. The Mystery Plays would, Cllr Vassie offers, be an excellent opportunity for people who come to live in this country to familiarise themselves with our culture.

Even so, York would not appear to be the most ethnically diverse of cities. In 2003, it had just over 6% BME, a figure that’s projected to rise to 10% by 2010. Isn’t there a danger that the people of York who have been stalwarts of the Mystery Plays and were born and bred in Acomb, for example, might feel sidelined?

Happily, Cllr Vassie says there is room for all. Which leaves one final Mystery still unsolved, a question that Rory Mulvihill (who has played both Jesus and the Devil in previous productions) asked this week. Which Mystery Plays are under discussion – the wagon plays or the ‘full-blown spectacular’? (Or both, since the guilds are due to mount the next wagon plays in 2010.)

‘Very delicate negotiations are currently taking place about what will happen in 2010,’ says Cllr Vassie. As to whether the multicultural 2012 production is on the wagons or in the Minster, he’s remaining tight-lipped.

The Mystery deepens. Get me a pint, Lewis. I need to think.