Play crossed off Easter calendar . . due to cash woes

IT IS the greatest story ever told - but it seems even the Resurrection is not immune to funding problems.

• Duncan Rennie as Jesus leads last year's play before being nailed to the cross

Organisers of the popular Easter Play - a walking play in Princes Street Gardens depicting the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ - have confirmed they will not be able to stage the production this year.

While excerpts will be performed at a Church of Scotland event being held in the Capital next month, unless new investors are found, next year's event could also be in jeopardy.

The play, which involves actors and a team of more than 100 volunteers moving the audience around Princes Street Gardens to tell different parts of the story, costs around 25,000 to stage.

• Should the council be asked to help keep events such as the Easter play alive? Vote here

Last year, the production finished in debt, and currently the organising trust has just over 2000, making it impossible to stage the full event this year.

They have now set up a fundraising committee to work on ensuring the production - which had attracted audiences of more than 3000 people in recent years - can go ahead in 2012.

They will presenting a selection of excerpts from the play at the Church of Scotland's Roll Away the Stone event in Princes Street Gardens in May, which is expected to be attended by upwards of 4000 people.

Since starting in 2005, the Easter play has drawn increasingly large crowds and become a familiar part of the Capital's celebrations.

Reverend Michael Frew, of the Slateford and Longstone Parish Church and the chair of trustees for the play, said: "Unfortunately last year's event finished with a deficit, and so we were unable to produce a play this year and felt it would be beneficial to take a break and look at the organisation of the event.

"We are planning to run the play again in 2012. To produce the show each year costs around 25,000, so we are now looking at fundraising over the next year.

"If everything goes well we hope to be able to officially announce next year's production in September, which is when we will start really putting it together.

"It is an expensive spectacle, and the costs are mostly on the sound equipment, which is quite complicated, as well as a professional actor and director and other aspects.

"It is a shame, as it has been very popular, but we will be staging some parts of it at the Roll Away the Stone event, so hopefully people who were looking forward to the event can see it there."

The Easter play is the latest high-profile public event to be cancelled this year, following the news that the Festivals Cavalcade will not be going ahead.

The city council has said it will now focus on re-inventing the free public event for 2012, after long-term director David Todd announced he was stepping down from the role.