Cromer

A Passion Play using drama, words and music to re-tell the story of the first Good Friday, including Jesus’s trial and crucifixion.

About 100 people gathered to watch a well-staged passion play in the grounds of Cromer parish church. Tourists and locals alike stopped what they were doing to either sit on the grass or stand for the moving Good Friday event.

Lay minister David Masters said: “I was surprised by how many people watched us. It was a great crowd. Whatever they were doing before it, we obviously captured their attention, and they stayed for the whole play, which lasted about half an hour.”

The Cromer Passion play has been performed in the church grounds for about five years, he said. “For the last few years the weather’s been freezing,” he added. “Probably, the good weather was one of the reasons there were so many people watching.

“We used to do a Walk of Witness in the town, but after a while we realised that was not blessing the town. It was stopping the traffic and affecting shopkeepers, so we thought, why not do a passion play in the grounds of the church? The plan was to re-enact events from nearly 2,000 years ago to speak to the people. As a church we want to support the community.

“A lot of thought and planning went into the event, and people put a lot of effort into it. Jesus died to bring us life. Looking at the crowd I would say about a third were church people, and the rest were tourists.” At the end of the play people were invited to stay for a hot drink and a hot cross bun.

Read some press coverage in North Norfolk News.