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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Monday, 22 February 2016. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
A FRESH new Abingdon Passion Play has been produced by Chris Matthewman, the founder of the Christian drama company, Lamps Collective.
The 2016 play hopes to build on the popularity and success of the inaugural production which took place in the Abbey Gardens on Palm Sunday 2013.
It offers opportunities for people of all ages to come and retell the story of Easter in a dramatically exciting and accessible way. Directed by Sam Pullen-Campbell, also of Lamps, the play aims to bring fresh moments of humour and lightness to the well-known story.
Sam hopes the production will show the power of live communication in an age when we're all glued to our screens so much of the time.
There's an immediacy and reality to people actually talking and enacting events live. The Passion Play uses a band of storytellers to give the piece its narrative drive, rather like a Greek chorus.
They have a dual function in that they both take part in the action as characters and also stand back from it to comment on it.
The storytellers are female like many of the followers of Jesus, but here they are given a voice which they would not have had 2,000 years ago.
It also gives women equal performing opportunities with the men and provides a balance so that women in the audience have characters with whom they can identify. Music is integral to the production because it is very simply staged and will be performed outdoors in daylight; the music helps to evoke atmosphere and create mood in the same way that lighting might do in a theatre.
It also illustrates and underscores the action dramatically and movingly.
The play also showcases the many talented choirs and musical performers in Abingdon.
Heidi Cottrell has composed a beautiful new score with nine songs written for a variety of actors and singers.
As well as over 40 adults from Kennington, Radley, Chinnor and Abingdon (both church choirs, worship groups and community choirs) there are six primary schools involved too.
Sally Mears, who is conducting the choirs says that it is a real community effort and a pleasure to be working with such committed people. The main aim of the production is to convey the Easter story and to tell it clearly, entertainingly and accessibly.
The organisers hope that it brings the community together to enjoy a live experience, offering people of all ages the opportunity to participate either on stage or off, or simply to come and watch. Abingdon Passion Play is being performed on Sunday 13 March at 11am and 3pm in the Market Square and admission is free.
Everyone is welcome.