Passion Casting Call
Easter Play casting call out
By Thom Dibdin
Edinburgh’s Passion Play has put a call out for community performers for its 2017 production, which will return to a tradition theme but take on a Scottish Voice.
Organisers say that The Easter Play, which will be performed in Princes Street Gardens West on Saturday 15th April 2017, will have a number of the biblical characters speaking in Scots to help the story connect with contemporary Scotland.
Katharine Calder in the 2013 Passion Play: Cross Words. Photo: The Easter Play Trust
Director Suzanne Lofthus said: “This is a full, promenade production in period costume set in the first century AD, but we are looking to bring a more colloquial feel to the language by making some of the characters speak in Scots.
“We’re not saying that the characters in the Bible were Scots, but that they were ordinary men and women just like us. We have commissioned the writer, Kamala Maniam, to bring some more modern touches to the language and make it more accessible and relevant.”
This is the first time in five years that a traditional Passion Play has been performed in Princes Street Gardens. In 2014 some two thousand people The Edinburgh Passion, a contemporary version of the story by playwright Rob Drummond.
Rev Mike Frew, chairman of the Easter Play Trust, said: “We have gone back to a traditional production this year because we felt that a lot of people don’t know the original story. But we really want the characters to speak in contemporary voices, the kind of language people would hear and use in conversation, to make a bridge from the original story to the 21st century.”
Call Out for actors
Lofthus is asking for actors of all ages, backgrounds and accents to join her community cast. No acting experience is needed and she hopes that the cast will be made up of a wide variety of people. There are both speaking and non-speaking parts.
Anyone interested in being part of The Easter Play is invited to attend weekly rehearsals which begin on Wednesday 16th November at Gorgie Dalry Stenhouse Church, 190-192 Gorgie Road, at 7pm, or contact cuttingedge21@btopenworld.com for more information.
Listing
The Easter Play
Princes Street Gardens West, Princes Street, EH2 2HG
Saturday 15 April 2017, 2pm
ENDS
The real reason it is appropriate for Jesus and his disciples to speak Scots is that they were Galilean so would have had an identifiable dialect and accent. I would have liked them to be more Scottish. (I am a longstanding English resident!). However, it is not easy to perform in Scots unless one is well versed in it. Also, the writer would need to be steeped in the language.
This is not meant as a criticism, just a comment, as I found the production engrossing and profoundly moving. I saw several people in tears during the crucifixion. Great that the weather was so kind. So, many thanks to you all.