Passion Plays, also known as Mystery Plays, were started in the Church in Medieval times, and were used as a means to communicate the Gospel to a mostly illiterate general public, telling the Bible stories from Genesis to the life of Jesus Christ onwards! As the success of the plays increased, the Church gave responsibility to the local tradesmen to produce the plays and people such as the Fishmongers took on sections like the Feeding of the 5000 and the Shipbuilders took on the Flood (very creative producing!). The plays then began to take on an educational stream and introduce moral teaching, becoming known as Morality Plays. Thus Theatre in Education was born!
Today there are many passion plays around the world. This tradition of both teaching the Gospel and Theatre in Education has continued, for instance, in schools throughout the world with Nativity plays. Each Passion Play tells the story of Jesus Christ in a new light. Colours and cultures from different parts of the country (and world!) are added to the Passion Plays and result in phenomenal acts of entertainment and awareness of what Jesus Christ has done for us.
