THE PASSION 2021

Coming to the UK Easter 2021

The Passion is coming to Cardiff in 2022. An exciting new production of the Easter story with a modern script told by national stars and local talent. It is the story of Jesus Christ’s last few weeks on earth performed to a live audience of thousands and televised to an audience of millions.

Photography © willemjandebruin – Used with permission

History of The Passion

The Passion was first performed as a musical TV special in 2006 in Manchester. Since then The Passion has been performed in Gouda, Rotterdam, The Hague, Groningen, Enschede, Amersfoort and Leeuwarden.  Then in 2016 The Passion went to New Orleans in the USA where it was viewed by 8 million people. Back in Holland the following year 12,000 people flocked to the live event and over 3.4 million people watched The Passion on TV in Holland.

Over the last 10 years it has had 30 million viewings at live and televised events in Manchester, the Netherlands (Rotterdam, The Hague, Groningen, Enschede, Amersfoort and Leeuwarden) and New Orleans. The Passion won the National Event Prize 2012 as the best city marketing event. In 2014 The Passion was voted winner of the TV beelden-award in the best entertainment category. And in 2016, it was nominated for the TV beelden-award in the category of best show programme.

ORGANISATION

UK Passion is organised and produced by UK Passion and Eye2Eye Media in co-production and in collaboration with the municipality and the events agency and broadcasters who are experienced in organising pop culture events like these.

PARTNERSHIP(S)

Because UK Passion 2019 is not only a spectacular television programme, but more especially a unique cultural event that falls into the category of the performing arts, the production will involve a variety of partners. For UK Passion, Eye2Eye Media and the co-producing TV channel this is a vital part of the Passion performance. As well as attaching great importance to partnering with the city, they place particular value on collaborating with the city’s diverse religious and cultural communities. For this reason, we emphasize working with partners who are eager to grasp this unique opportunity to tell a story of religious and cultural importance: the meaning of the story of Christ’s passion at Easter.

Passion Trust Background & Motivation

UK Passion is a project run in partnership with the Passion Trust, which is a registered charity that supports performances of Passion Plays and Biblical drama in the United Kingdom. Passion Plays are free performances held in city centres and are an important part of Easter celebrations for many communities. Together these performances attract crowds of people in the thousands and they are regularly featured in national and regional newspapers.

Passion plays give people who don’t know the story of Easter the chance to find out who Jesus was and what he did. The Gospel account is brought to life on the streets for all to see. They are fitting performances during Easter to focus attention on the real reason behind the eggs and chocolate: Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, which is the centre of the Christian faith and hope. At this time in the history of the United Kingdom we believe it is appropriate for the profile of the Passion of Christ to become a central part of British culture again and the Christian heritage in this nation.

Passion Plays help address the lack of biblical literacy in the UK. According to a study undertaken by YouGov on behalf of the Bible Society in 2014, 43% of children who took part indicated that they have never seen, read or heard the story of the Crucifixion. Over 60% of children indicated they had not read, seen or heard the Feeding of the 5,000 (61%) or the Good Samaritan (61%)

Previous Productions

Manchester Passion reached 1.1 million people in their homes as they watched on BBC3 then later on BBC2 and several thousand witnessed the production in the live audience. The Passion has now been televised in New Orleans with 8 million viewers and is in its seventh year in Holland where over 3 million view it on national television. It is considered the most watched special TV show in that nation. In addition, we intend that the UK Passion would reach people through instant online communication and then post-online viewing would increase the reach of the production even further.

Executive Producers

Sponsors & Underwriters

challenge-properties

UK Passion registered under the Passion Trust.

The Passion Trust is a charity, registered no 1141493.
Company limited by guarantee, registered no 07330034.
Reg office Sinclaire Cottage, Portsmouth rd, Ripley, Surrey, GU23 6EW