The Passion of Port Talbot

The Passion was a major Wildworks' commission that formed part of my research into the use of theatre as a space for community engagement and democratic participation. My specific role on the project was as Community Director and I also contributed to the set design process. The project involved over 1200 members of the Port Talbot community working with the Wildworks team and Michael Sheen., Building upon the medieval traditions of large scale civic performance of mystery cycles, the premise of The Passion was to create an immersive event involving large numbers of community members in all aspects of the production and setting the production all over the town of Port Talbot over a 3 day period. The aim was to push boundaries and reimagine community-based participative and professional practice on a grand scale. The 1200+ community members took part as writers, musicians, singers, actors, makers and stewardsover a three-day non-stop celebration that started on the afternoon of Good Friday and concluded on Sunday evening. (April 22nd to 24th 2011)., The performance itself was preceeded by a six month perparation and devising period, during which the team worked in the streets, malls and social clubs of Port Talbot to engage members of the community in finding stories, memories, images and locations where the story of The Passion could unfold., The Passion received extensive media coverage and was the subject of a BBC documentary.