Mystery play character always male, reeling in the years (8)
I believe the answer is:
everyman
'mystery play character' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'always male reeling in the years' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'always' could be 'ever' (synonyms) and 'ever' is located in the answer.
'male' could be 'man' (man is a kind of male) and 'man' is found in the answer.
'years' could be 'y' (abbreviation) and 'y' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for everyman that I've seen before include "Representative human" , "ordinary chap" , "A typical human being" , "Old morality play" , "Ordinary guy" .)