Verdict: three stars
West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
When four women gather on a grassy hillock on Easter Saturday to introduce us to a very familiar story, the dressed-down approach of Salome, Anna, the wife of Peter the disciple, and two very different kinds of Mary ushers in something beyond a more familiar roll-call of emperors, scribes and hand-washing statesmen. Instead, Susan Mansfield's take on the greatest story ever told in Cutting Edge Theatre Company's now annual open-air Edinburgh Easter Play lets those who we normally don't hear about have their say.
Over a series of nine largely solo scenes, the audience bear witness to confessionals and testimonies from the Bible's minor characters, innocent bystanders, bit part players and all but silent witnesses to the everyday miracles and crucifixions that will define them forever after.
There is the apology of Claudia, the wife of Pontious Pilate, who remained acquiescent in her husband's decision. There is the military realpolitik of a camouflage-clad centurion who gave orders to hyped-up squaddies in the face of what they saw as religious extremism.
There are the servants who saw water transformed into wine, the women who looked on as those buried were raised from the dead, and those who saw the empty tomb of their messiah after he had been killed.
It's a a lot to take in over the two hours of Suzanne Lofthus' production, but, as the audience are promenaded through the Gardens in four separate colour-coded groups, her community cast give it their all.
As amplified echoes of other orators elsewhere bleed over each other, the effect puts flesh on a collective litany culled from the same set of divine inspirations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article