"Play of Daniel" at Trinity Church's Twelfth Night Festival From left, Scott Mello, James Ruff and Christopher Preston Thompson in "The Play of Daniel." You wouldn't go so far as to call Noah Greenberg's landmark 1958 production of "The Play of Daniel" site-specific. But the imported and reconstructed monastic setting of the Cloisters, the Washington Heights branch of the Metropolitan Museum, was certainly appropriate to the modern premiere of this medieval mystery play, and to judge from later presentations of it there, the atmospheric trappings must have figured prominently in the production's enchantment. Indeed, the Concerts at the Cloisters series all but acknowledged a sort of synergy between setting and drama in 2008, when it commissioned a new staging of "Daniel," directed by Drew Minter, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Greenberg's masterstroke. And Mr. Minter nestled the production even further into the woof and warp of the surroundings by, for example, having the players study the ancient statuary while working out body carriage and physical gesture. That staging returned to the Cloisters early this year, but over the weekend, it was relocated to Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan for three performances as part of the church's ever more ambitious Twelfth Night Festival, now in its third season. Though I thought I remembered having seen a performance in 2008, when I saw the production on Friday evening, I realized that I had only attended rehearsals and reported on them, so it was mostly new to me. And, no question, Trinity misses some of the intimacy and the air of antiquity of the Cloisters" chapels. But here, Mr. Minter made a virtue of the grander space, using not only the small set in the sanctuary - table, chairs, drop curtains - but also the entire center aisle as a performance space, creating a different kind of intimacy between performers and audience, at close range. In a prologue, two scenes and a few processionals, the play elaborates on the biblical tale of Daniel: his interpretation of the mysterious writing on the wall heralding punishment of the grasping King Belshazzar; his being thrown to the lions by Belshazzar's successor, Darius, only to be saved by the intervention of an angel; and his prophesying the birth of Jesus. Whoops, that one's not in the Bible. In some ways, this production is more austere than the delightfully circusy one that evolved through the previous New York stagings by Greenberg and Frederick Renz. In other ways, it is more lavish and inventive. Mr. Minter has devised extensive choreography that goes beyond mere gestures. And with Mary Anne Ballard, a string player, as music director, the players (who also sing) draw eerie or comical sound effects from their instruments. No one pretends that this is how the work was performed at the Beauvais Cathedral in 12th-century France, but since all that survives are the words and single melodic lines, modern performers have to invent - a lot. And if, in doing so, they want to emulate the exuberant and imaginative "youth of Beauvais" identified in the prologue as the work's creators, who can blame them? Sasha Richter's costume designs are evocative of biblical times, except for the lions, which are outlandishly shaggy and colorful. The singers were adequate to excellent on Friday, the most notable being James Ruff as Daniel, Peter Walker as Belshazzar and Habakkuk, and Sarah Pillow as Belshazzar's queen and Habakkuk's angel.