POOLE Community Passion Play, Through the Eyes of a Child, returns this Easter after the success of the two previous years.

With more than 50 local people on the stage, the performance moves between Parkstone United Reformed Church and St Peter’s Church, Parkstone.

The play follows a tradition dating back to medieval times.

The York cycles are still played out every other year and in Germany the famous Passion play at Oberammer- gau has been performed every ten years since 1634. While the Poole play includes the usual ingredients of a traditional passion play, the script is rewritten.

Writer/director, Sharon Muiruri, came up with the title Through the Eyes of a Child.

He said: “A twelve-year-old boy, dressed in casual modern clothing, moves through the scenes asking, ‘what are they doing to him?’, ‘why is this awful thing happening?’, and ‘can’t we stop it?’.”

“Meanwhile, the rest of the cast wear traditional costumes, enacting the passion of Christ’s last days on Earth.”

Sharon added: “Last year we had a totally mixed crew of professional artistes and amateurs, of varying faith, of varying degrees of physical ability and with ages ranging from five to 85, who came together to stage a show that was very well received.”

This year’s play runs until Sunday. For more information please visit poolepassioncommunity. info