by the Rev. Gilbert Cope
Tutor in Theology In the Department of Extra-Mural Studies.
Birmingham University
Of the original medieval Passion play nothing remains. The play was rewritten and has since been several times radically adapted-in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The text now in use is the mid-nineteenth century Daisenberger version; Dedler's music is in a ' church style ' older than that.
Mr. Cope, who returned recently from seeing the play, believes that only a fresh approach to the production and a new text reflecting the conclusions of modern Biblical scholarship could make the play relevant, devotionally, for a contemporary audience.