Tales of Past Plays

Being a live play, the Good Friday Passion Play has a great many unscripted parts which make it so much fun to be part of. You can come every year and it will be different yet familiar. A different mix of actors, support crew, crowd, Pauline Fathers and more somehow combine to bring the same story presented in slightly different ways each year.
Here are some tales we gathered from people last year.

The play must go on, technology or not.

Not quite according to plan

As Narrator I had my phone ready with a Rooster cry, but it was Internet based. The moment came to play the sound so I pressed Play. Nothing. My finger stabbed the Play button again. Nothing. And again. Nothing. Internet was dead. "And the cock crew" I announced. Next time it will be better.

Is this for Real?

Often the play can be quite immersive for those watching and they don't want to be part of the problem crowd. They want to be the good guys:
Pilate asked the crowd “Christ or Barrabas?” Everyone cried “Barrabas!” Except one little old lady behind one of the girls playing a Woman of Jerusalem.  “No. I like Jesus.” She said.

The Centurion asking for a volunteer

The previous year some of the crowd were trying to start a counter rally calling for Jesus. This just spurred on the Caiaphas and the High priests to greater effort.

One year someone stole Jesus' sandals.

Another time a crying little old lady tried to rescue Jesus by dragging him under the rope barrier after one if his falls.

There were a number of children behind me at the scourging and I turned to them and reassured them, "They're just acting, you know?" "Yeah" they answered as if they always knew that and added, "Is the blood real?" "No," I answered smiling.
Near Ariel were some other children who said, "They're really cutting into him aren't they?" They would look away and then look back again.

Phew. They're just acting.

The Centurion saw a couple of ladies crying as Jesus was in agony walking the Way of the Cross for all the abuse he had received. He quietly mentioned to them, "They're just acting you know." Between sobs they answered, "We know, but it is just so sad." "OK," replied the Centurion and went back to abusing Jesus and everyone else in a fine centurion voice.

There was a group of people arguing amongst themselves in a foreign language as they waited to visit Jesus' Tomb. Finally one said, "I'll ask them, I'll just ask!" in their language but we could tell that was what it meant, and turned to the Marshalls guarding the tomb and asked, "Was it real blood?" One answered "Of course it was!" and the other said, "No it wasn't". They thought it may have been sheep blood and the Marshall smiled and said, "That would be a little unhygienic. We have someone make this for us as realistic as he can." They agreed it was very realistic indeed.