Passion play cancelled after red-tape mix-up

A PASSION PLAY in Oxford has been cancelled after a bureaucratic misunderstanding involving the local police and council, writes James Macintyre.

Organisers of the Cowley Road Passion Play, due to be performed on Good Friday, announced the news “with great disappointment and frustration” after confusion over the need for an entertainments licence from the council.

A statement said: “This is due to an intractable situation which developed with the City Council Events Planning Department and the local police. Previously unheralded issues came to light a couple of weeks before Good Friday.”

The Tablet has learned that the cancellation happened amid a misunderstanding about the necessity of an entertainment licence, which is not required for religious events. A police officer who did not know that a Passion play was religious advised organisers that they should apply for a licence. But such licences take around six weeks to be processed by the council and, with the issue unresolved last weekend, the play’s organisers decided to cancel.