This weekend is Easter and, as usual, plans are in place for a Passion Play in Market Place on Good Friday. SALLY BRYANT finds out more from the show’s director
WOKINGHAM’S Market Place will become a stage this Good Friday for the borough’s eighth Passion Play. Dignitaries will join a procession to follow a plain wooden cross from Corpus Christi Catholic Church to the town’s centre.
Then at noon, shoppers will be able to put down their bags for an hour and enjoy a performance designed to make them think – and although the concept of the Passion Play is ages old, the message here will be bang up to date.
The play that will stop passers-by in their tracks on Good Friday has been commissioned by Churches Together in Wokingham.
The mastermind behind the project is local priest the Revd Michael Johnson, artistic director of Stage-Fright.
The group he founded in London in 2000, then in Wokingham in 2007, sets out to “explore the thin places between heaven and earth, spirit and theatre, life and art”.
Mr Johnson, who lives in Wokingham, explains: “It is essentially a theatre group trying to find ways to help people engage with old-fashioned faith stories, in a way that is acceptable in the contemporary world, not just in a classical movie way.”
And this Good Friday, no member of the audience will leave untouched by the message, because the theme interwoven with the story of Christ’s suffering fills every branch of the media every day.
As the artistic director explains: “Every year we are telling the story of Good Friday, of the death on the Cross. This year the main theme we are using is refugees, drawing on stories of refugees in literature, including the Bible, and also first-hand accounts.”
The Passion Play will be the central feature of Wokingham’s Good Friday events. A cast of around a dozen – it has been 70 or more in previous years – will be telling the thought-provoking story.
The youngest player will be around eight, the oldest heading for 80. The story will be told by narration, the script has been pre-recorded so everyone can hear, and onlookers will hear voices from a refugee town.
Mr Johnson explains Stage-Fright’s delivery is aimed at being accessible for everyone and the performers are a far cry from a bunch of luvvies.
“People receive things in different ways. Some people are happy to read a book, other people need something visual, others need to do something.
“Stage-Fright is aimed at people who do not think of themselves as actors, they are just people from the community. The audience hears people talking in their own way, they realise it is being done by people from the community, rather than a performance troupe from outside.
“Because it is visual, it has more impact.”
The performers will be in contemporary dress to reinforce this is a message for today.
When Mr Johnson was mapping out his career path, he was torn between the theatre and the Church. He chose the Church, then his first church asked him to run a theatre group. Now he is paid full-time by the Church to run theatre projects.
Stage-Fright’s aim is to connect people in the community and audiences in London and Ascot, as well as Wokingham borough, have benefited from its work. Make sure you are in Market Place at midday on Friday – it promises to be an hour that will make you think and care.
