The Town Tells Its Story Passion in Port Talbot

# There's a shadow hanging over us

# There's a light that guides us home

# We give until there's nothing left

# Cos we're the flesh and you're the bone

# And home is where the heart is

# That's where it all started

# Those who may depart, I'm sure they're mostly broken-hearted... #

Port Talbot in South Wales is a town that makes steel and chemicals,

and that most outsiders drive past at speed.

It's not a place often associated with theatre.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to bring everyone a bit closer.

But in six months' time, next Easter,

a local man has a plan for the town to stage

the most ambitious theatrical project that Wales has ever seen.

His name is Michael Sheen.

Born and raised in Port Talbot,

Michael, of course, is a well-known movie actor,

famous for his portrayal of characters like Tony Blair,

David Frost and Brian Clough,

and who is now one of the hot names in Hollywood.

Do you want to sit down?

Yeah, I'm just trying to make this a little bit more informal,

I don't really want to be standing on the stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, would you please come

a little bit closer to the stage?

But his next role, working with the new National Theatre of Wales,

may well be his most ambitious to date.

One of the big, defining things about this town is that it is bypassed.

There are roads that are there to ensure

that nobody has to deal with our town!

Sheen's plan is to both direct and star in his own updated

three-day version of the Crucifixion story,

and he's hoping to persuade the whole town to take part.

The story is, I suppose, inspired by the story of the Passion of Christ.

I got very excited about the idea

of being able to tell that story in our town through our community.

Community is not something we can take for granted,

it's not something that's just there. It's something that we have to work for and earn and passionately defend.

I think it's great that he's coming back to Port Talbot,

being a Port Talbot boy himself.

There's not a lot going on at the moment in the community,

especially in the arts aspect.

It's great he's coming back

and is choosing to do something in the town.

It's going to be immense, really, isn't it?

An organisational nightmare, though!

There is a long tradition of community Passion plays -

townsfolk acting out the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus,

and if you're thinking of putting on a Passion play,

there's one place you have to visit.

The world's most famous Passion play takes place every ten years

in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau.

Michael has come here to do some research,

along with his creative partners, co-director Bill Mitchell -

who runs a company called Wildworks,

which specialises in large-scale community theatre -

and the poet and writer Owen Sheers.

It started as a bargain with God,

so as to be saved from the plague.

'It seems to have worked, they haven't had anyone die of plagues since 1634,'

so every ten years, they do it.

It started off in the cemetery,

and now it has moved to a huge purpose-built aircraft hangar

at the theatre.

And the extraordinary thing is, I remember 30 years ago,

my grandmother coming here to Oberammergau

to watch the play, part of a church group.

And to think that I'm here 30 years later, and they've only done it twice

in between since then, is extraordinary.

THEY SING

After the show, Michael and Owen went backstage to meet Jesus,

the actor Frederik Mayet.

We have to ask you...

Oh, yeah - from a technical point of view, how do you stay on that?

It's easy.

It is! Under the... Right!

-And do you have a little thing that you fit...?

-Yeah.

Because it looked very realistic.

For the arms.

-Right. So, your wrist rests on that?

-Yeah.

-Plates.

-That's for the feet?

We need to work out how I can stay up there and not fall off!

It has to be safe, that is the most important.

I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes going, "Oh!"

thinking about how I'm going to be up there.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

I really was concerned, and still am concerned, about the idea

of it being seen as me coming back to my town

and I see myself as Jesus, or some kind of special person,

and that I'm there to teach people - which is nonsense.

So if anything, more and more I've started to see the Jesus figure

as being like a conduit, like a vessel,

and that he doesn't come to tell anyone anything - he comes to listen.

Heading back to Port Talbot from Oberammergau,

Michael, like the character he is going to play,

is embarking on a huge exercise to listen

to the people and the stories of the town.

His rather-ambitious plan is to try and improvise a new script

for The Passion from scratch, using the lives and memories

of local people as raw material.

Adele Thomas has been given the job of finding

and recording these stories, and she has set up

a stall in the shopping centre.

-That's me.

-Brilliant.

Today, we've been collecting people's films and their photographs,

their memories of the town, and those things are going to

somehow filter their way into the show.

Someone came in earlier on and they handed us a stack of cine films,

which have been rushed off to the lab to be converted into DVDs,

so we can play them in the show.

People have brought in old photographs,

they've been bringing us cards

and books and VHS tapes, or just coming in

to tell us stories about the past of the town.

These little luggage tags, each represents a separate memory

of something in the town that has been lost,

that doesn't exist anymore.

At the moment, the plan is that when Michael's Teacher character is

crucified at the end of the show, he will regain his memory

and suddenly all of the lost things of the town will come flooding back,

and he will deliver a litany of everything that has been lost.

Then eventually, those things will somehow appear

from under the ground, and they'll be brought back to the town.

I don't know how yet, but that's the plan at the moment.

Port Talbot's intensively industrial history and the impact of recession,

unemployment and pollution have over the years made this

a tough town to live in.

One of the most devastating episodes in the history of Port Talbot

was the building of the giant M4 overpass

right through the centre of the town.

Llewellyn Street was one road in the path of the motorway,

and one side of the road was completely demolished.

Tonight, Michael is hosting a party

for the residents of Llewellyn Street.

Any stories you've got about the street,

past, present, all the things you remember

that you miss about the town as a whole, or the street specifically.

We'd love to interview... Anyone who's interested in being interviewed, we'd love it.

Llewellyn Street?

Well, I was born there, for a start.

I lived there until I was about 15, until the houses

were due to come down.

But after us moving, our house was still up for about 12 months,

and I kept going up every day to my house,

climbing in through the back window, sitting down,

having my little thoughts or my regrets

that the houses were coming down.

Until they finally did come down, and it was a very sad day.

John Sparks is another Llewellyn Street resident

who has strong memories of the demolition.

When they pulled down the houses themselves, our homes were ruined.

The noise was bedlam from morning till night.

The main thing that we lost was neighbours.

Once that side of the street had gone,

the community had broken, because people were belonging to each other.

Not only did they pull one side of the street down,

they also pulled my chapel down,

where we got married in 1960,

and we were the last people to get married there.

Also, they pulled my school down for the building of the motorway.

I'm really excited, and looking forward to the project.

I'm sure Port Talbot will never have seen anything like it,

and neither will Wales, I don't think!

CHOIR SING

It's a pleasure, nice to see you. Have a good day.

It's a grey day in February, three months before Easter,

and Michael is taking the team on a tour of the streets of Port Talbot

to try work out how on earth they will become the settings

for the Passion story.

The important thing with this whole project, really, is that

it's outdoors, and that is one of the major factors.

I'll go and say hello.

Hello!

I was going to say, is it Monday we're coming in? Great, OK.

It only really kicks in what it's going to entail

once you're out, and we can go to the different locations

and we can look at where it's actually going to take place.

This is the area where we will potentially

be having the refugee camp.

Being Michael Sheen,

it's hard to go anywhere in the town without meeting one or two friends.

Hello, are you all right?

Hiya, you all right?

We can have people potentially standing on the stones

on that little island over there, or in the river, and if not,

then on the bridge or something connected to the river,

as we're singing about the people of the river.

The middle of the shopping centre is a perfect performance space,

and Michael already has plans to use it for some of the key scenes.

This is the space where I meet my mother, and then in the procession,

if I have collapsed outside at this point,

then somehow it's being brought back to the mother.

The climax of the three-day drama will be a great procession

with the cross through the town and then down to the seafront.

It could almost be like an intake of breath at this point.

Everything stops, and in silence we move around,

and then we see the place with the cross at the end of it.

Let's have a look at what we can see.

If there is a moment where we...

HE GASPS It's the last stretch.

-MAN IN CAR:

-How are you?!

Hello, you all right?

Darren was asking about you this morning, Darren Hayward!

Oh, right.

Say hello to him for me. Ta-ra.

Hello, hello. Are you all right?

-Nice to see you.

-And you.

This seems like a good place,

a gathering of strength for the last stretch.

There's a big moment here, am I going to be able to pick it up?

Am I going to be able to do it?

Maybe at this first roundabout here,

maybe this is the point at which I collapse.

The hike ends up on a windy roundabout near the seafront,

which Michael has decided is the perfect spot

on which to be crucified.

How high is it going to be?

-About three metres.

-We're not going forwards.

The reality hits you hard, especially how cold it is at the moment.

I'm thinking, "This is where I'll be on the cross."

But we'll see what happens.

Rehearsals are taking place all over Port Talbot,

but based at the Naval Social Club, so it's the centre of the mayhem,

with daily warm-ups on the beach, which I've managed to avoid.

Give yourselves a bit of a slap.

What am I expecting?

I don't know, to be honest. I just... I really don't know.

On your face, then your arms.

In the Naval Social Club,

there's about four different rooms with people rehearsing,

ranging from the professional actors on the show,

through to community members.

There's also things being built. I was just hanging out the back

with Sue, who is polishing a large piece of wood

that is going to be turned into a very unconventional puppet stage.

There's people wandering around looking for their choir rehearsal.

ALL: Sss-sss-sss, sss-sss-sss, sss-sss-sss!

-Wah!

-ALL: Wah-wah-wah, wah-wah-wah!

There's a bloke just pulled up in a van,

asking if he could move everything away for scrap,

which we had to let him know it was actually the set of the play!

ALL: Brr!

I came with a wide open mind today,

I didn't know if it was going to be a Passion as based on the past...

-Which it isn't now.

-Which it isn't now, I see,

but it still sounds really interesting to me.

And I like the idea of improvisation,

and I like the idea of working in groups and pairs

and everything else, and working as a team.

THEY YELP

There's a big production meeting going on at the same time

at the moment with about 30 people

trying to work out how the hell we pull this off!

Up the valley from Port Talbot,

Michael and Bill have discovered a circus school that works with kids,

especially kids from difficult backgrounds,

with incredible results.

They are clearly going to be great for the play, but exactly what

they are going to be used for isn't immediately apparent.

We are completely in the dark.

I just know we're taking part.

I have no idea what we're doing,

what's expected of us.

Michael's got strong ideas about what he wants,

but it's fair to say there's no fixed set of plans.

For him and his team, it's more a case of

devising the play as they go,

using whatever resources they can get their hands on.

For most of these men, their main theatrical experience

comes from their annual rugby-club panto.

I'm not sure what to expect, really. I've done

a little bit of drama in school, but apart from that

I haven't done anything like this since.

One, two! One, two!

In the play, these men are all going to be part of a sinister security force.

-At ease!

-Lads, lads.

The two things that were the most frightening and intimidating

about the Roman army were their unity, togetherness and their confidence.

And their confidence came from knowing that they had

the best technology at the time, and their unity came through

in just total togetherness, and that's what scary.

Because one thing done well will be far more frightening

than lots of things done kind of well.

Set...snap!

Set...snap!

Set...snap!

Very good. Relax. Very good.

We are tough, we are tough, aren't we?

No, we act tough!

I just want five volunteers at the moment.

As part of the training for their roles,

everyone needs to learn how to handle a gun.

There was a change in the feeling in the room, like.

It was all friendly, then the guns came out,

-and it was like, "Ooh!"

-Deathly silence!

-Yeah!

I think they're always held down

when you're sort of doing perimeters and all that.

And then, when there's an actual danger,

I think then, maybe, it comes up. But on the whole, they tend to be...

I ended up on Crimewatch when I held a gun last!

Guns suit some people and not others.

-How do they make you feel, Steve?

-I didn't feel as friendly, that time!

They've built most things here

at the Port Talbot Community Woodwork Training Project,

but this is their first go at a fully-functioning crucifix.

The idea we've had is to use maybe six-inch coach screws

at an appropriate distance, so Mr Sheen can support himself.

And also, we're designing a little seat

so he can just sit and be comfortable while he's on the cross.

When he stands up against it, it will be between his legs.

The idea we had was to have a bicycle seat,

just the front part of a bicycle seat, so he can sit on it.

He'll have a platform underneath his two feet as well,

so that should come out about six inches.

I think what we're trying to do is make it

as comfortable a crucifixion for Mr Sheen as possible.

You'll see the pencil work, is it?

It's all right when it's laying down, but when it's upright, I think it'll be slightly different!

The key thing in the whole piece has sort of developed

into being about the town being able to tell its story,

and I want the stories to come from a true sense of community

and the areas of the town and the people in the town

and the organisations that don't usually get seen -

more on the outskirts,

or the ones that are overlooked or ignored, or whatever.

So it's those sort of stories from the kind of outer edges

of the experiences of people in the town that I've been interested in.

Adele and Carys Shannon from the National Theatre Wales have done

a massive amount of research in the town,

and Owen, the writer, is now figuring out

how he's going to use that material.

You've interviewed huge amounts of people, setting up loads

of interviews, so we've built up this database of stories from the town.

I did sort of talk through this with Michael the other day.

He said that some might simply be extracts,

almost from what's written. He thinks that others, he might want worked up

into slightly more lyrical pieces.

If...if we identify one that we think,

"That would work as a possible song."

And then others might be used actually with no words at all,

it'll be some sort of movement piece or an enactment.

So, I think the second one I did was with Emma and Nicola,

who are carers for a little girl called Chloe.

And I think that's through Action For Children.

And they're a couple who have chosen to care for Chloe,

to give her family a break.

She's very, very, profoundly disabled, physically and mentally.

But they have a lovely chemistry, and I know Michael's interested

in kind of the musicality of how she likes to play.

This is Chloe, and I'm Emma.

-I'm Nicola.

-And every weekend, Chloe stays with us

through a scheme called Family Link.

Family Link is an excellent scheme, really.

It's got a number of disabled children and families that need

a bit of extra support,

so the family get a break, and we get the pleasure

of spending time with Chloe, which is immeasurable, really.

Chloe, ready, steady...

Pop!

Chloe's the leader, so whatever Chloe does,

what she really likes is the interaction when you copy her.

-And she waits for you to do it...

-Hiya.

-Hiya.

..before she does the next sound, movement,

or tapping, banging.

But it's all on her terms, really.

Isn't it, Chlo? She's the boss, and we take her lead then,

and that's what she really likes. Isn't it, Chlo?

We do all this going out shopping, everywhere we go, Tesco,

this is how we are, the three of us. Ain't we, Chlo?

When the kids are running in front of us watching us, Chlo.

Yeah? Yes.

Michael came up for tea for about half an hour, but he ended up staying

for about two and a half hours, and I don't think he would have gone then,

because he got on really well with Chloe,

and Chloe got on really well with Michael.

-Do we like Michael?

-Ready?

-Ready!

And they had great communication that day,

and hence they're going to have Chloe in The Passion.

After nearly two years of thinking, talking, researching and planning,

five weeks from Easter,

the full production is about to get under way.

For Michael, it's a moment to reflect

on the enormity of what he's got himself into.

I'm full of fear and doubt at the moment, really.

Having had this sort of intense experience

over the last little while,

and having a real sense of the richness of what is here,

and I've got all the things that I've said I wanted this piece to be.

And the town has done its part, in that the town has told me

what it wants the story to be, and I've experienced

a real sense of the community. And it has given me a feeling

of having an overview of the whole place, and it's a very powerful one,

and troubling in some ways, and hopeful and inspiring in other ways,

because the sense of the town that I've got is that

there are people in real need in this town, and very vulnerable people,

through no fault of their own, in difficult circumstances.

And there are other people who are desperately trying to help them

and do what they can for no reward, really.

No real support there. And it really feels like it's on the front line

of everything that the country as a whole is trying to deal with.

And now that I've got that sense -

and the whole point of this piece was to somehow celebrate that -

I feel a huge responsibility now.

And a massive doubt that I'm able to do that.

So, yeah...

-A big challenge.

-Yeah.

# Though some may depart, I'm sure they're mostly broken-hearted

# There are no secrets in this small town

# Nothing that's yours and yours alone

# But always someone near enough to help you out... #

Today is the first day of full rehearsals,

and the whole company of designers, technicians,

administrators and actors are meeting together for the first time.

This is the big start.

This is the bit that's massively exciting,

because the energy of everybody is starting to build up.

It's also the bit that's really, really scary!

Because you know, from this point on, it's real.

You've really got to do it.

Really, what we want to do today,

without getting into too much chat straightaway, is to get outside,

because one of the things I've learnt

over this period of time is that

if I spend too long sitting in a room

thinking up ideas for this,

I get too used to the idea that it's nice and comfortable

sitting in a room, then you get out

to where the actual locations are and go,

"Ooh, my God! How on earth are we going to do this?"

I thought it'd be great as a company that we immediately start

making associations with the places we're going to be doing it in

and the kind of challenges that we'll have because of that.

Michael is taking the company on a tour

of all the locations, including Llewellyn Street.

So, in a way, this street becomes symbolic of our whole story.

Three houses have volunteered their house,

and basically what we will do is,

I will go into the house, literally for a cup of tea,

with my friends, and our audience will all be out here,

hopefully thousands of people, but we'll have a controlled group

that just flood into the house,

and someone's house will just be rammed with people, like that!

And I'll be sitting on the sofa, having a cup of tea.

And then a family brings their child, a sick child,

to be healed by him, and they can't get through, but the idea is that

someone will get carried into the house over the heads of everyone

and the family come through,

and rather than being healed, I just say, "Tell me your story."

One of the main stories that will

come out of Llewellyn Street is Chloe's.

To help with rehearsals, Chloe is being taken to meet teenagers

from the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre,

who are working on choreography inspired by her personality and her movements.

Take a seat, come and sit over here, and let's meet some people.

This is Chloe. Say hello to Chloe.

Hi, Chloe. Hi, Chlo.

Ready, steady... Pop!

Yeah!

Can we all make the popping sound?

Pop! Pop!

She's enjoying it too much.

Are you listening, Chlo? You listening to all these pops?

-Because we did talk about what a responsibility this lot have got.

-Oh, they have.

Because if we're going to be trying for a sound like Chloe does,

we have a huge responsibility to get it as accurate as we possibly can.

Shall we go to the beginning bit? And we can show you a little bit

of some of the stuff we've kind of played with.

-Ready, Chlo?

-Ready, Chlo?

-Ready?

I play Chloe's father,

and I communicate with her through the noises we make,

from when we met Chloe earlier.

And during this scene, we start speaking to Chloe,

and from out of that comes sort of secret dancers in the crowd

that continue the dancing. And it evolves and grows

into a massive percussion piece with bin lids and drums

and kitchenware and cutlery, and lots of things

that make a lot of noise that hopefully the real Chloe will love.

ALL: Ready?

ALL: Ready?

'Now that the many different elements are beginning to find a shape,

'Michael is working with the main actors, putting the emotional flesh on the bones of his story.

'His own character, who's called The Teacher,

'has gone missing for 40 days and nights, devastating his mother and family.

'Worse still, he's lost his memory.'

Don't say that. Don't say that, no. It's me.

It's your mother. I'm your mother.

'Port Talbot actress Di Botcher is playing the mother.'

With me, yeah? I'm your mother. I'm your mother.

I think the thing about having this sort of scene

is you just have to hopefully go for emotional truth.

And, of course, there is, you know...

I've never had a son who's gone missing for 40 days and 40 nights,

so I can't draw on that.

But I can draw on what it's like to love somebody, lose somebody,

fear about them, worry about them.

I think we all can, can't we?

We've all sort of loved and lost, perhaps.

-Come on, let's just go!

-I can't leave him!

-Who are you, woman?

-I'm your mother!

-Come on!

-I'm your mother!

-Who are you?

'The scene ends with me just shouting out, "Who are you, woman?"'

-Yes.

-And you're going, "I'm your mother!"

-Yes.

Di's next scene in the play happens later that evening,

when The Teacher and his new group of friends

turn up for the closing night of Port Talbot's seaside social club for a kind of Last Supper.

Hiya. All right?

Listen, I was just wondering,

perhaps we could have a little chat, just for a minute?

'The rehearsal process, like so much of the development of the play,

'is all about storytelling.

'Michael likes to talk in great detail about the characters

'to help bring them to life in the actors' minds.'

The easiest thing to jump on is...

-mental breakdown.

-Hmm.

Amnesia being a sort of side...

What are you hoping will happen by the end of the night?

That you will recognise me, yeah, yeah.

-I think that you'll recognise me.

-And we'll all go home together.

Nice. That would be nice if that would happen, yes.

But I sort of got the feeling of just watching you,

you know, looking for...little signs of something.

Do you remember when you were little, when you were about eight or nine,

the night that I sang to you in the garden?

Maybe there's something you're trying to prompt me with.

You know, "Do you remember when...that happened?"

I looked out the window, there you were. You were in the garden in the dark.

"Remember when you were little, out in the garden

"and I was up in the window and I watched you for ages, and then I called you..."

We can make something up that when we're in the garden happens.

So I opened the window and I shouted down at you, "What are you doing there?"

When you're talking about my daughter at another point, maybe you say,

"Do you remember this picture? I remember when I took it.

"She was running out, and you picked her up and threw her up in the air."

-Yes.

-I've got pictures of me and my daughter where I'm throwing my daughter up.

-Yes.

She's your daughter.

That's your favourite photo of her.

Now, you remember that day.

We were all down the beach, and she was in the water.

She came running up the beach, she was all wet,

and she was calling to you, "Daddy, Daddy!"

And you picked her up, and you threw her in the air,

and then I took that photo as you were drying her off.

You remember that, don't you? Look at her, look at her!

There's just that deadness.

-"Who is she?"

-Yes. Yeah.

-That's horrible!

-So it's another slap.

-"Is she yours?"

-Yeah.

But as a journey throughout, does that start to feel like a journey?

Yes, and I think there must be a letting go as well.

She's lovely. I have to go.

You hang on to it. You keep looking at it, all right?

Don't worry about it. I'll just be over there, OK?

Perhaps we can have a little chat afterwards, all right?

I'll just be by here, love, not far.

There's just three weeks to go,

and what with the posters, graffiti, meetings, rehearsals,

visits to schools, old people's homes, charities and even prisons,

everyone in Port Talbot is talking about The Passion.

Hello, how are you doing? Are you going to dance for us, then?

-ALL:

-Yes!

-Yeah? You all ready?

-ALL:

-Yes!

-OK, good. Good.

-How many of you are there? How many hundreds?

-Loads.

Loads.

Have you all brought crisps?

Well, it's a lovely day for it, isn't it? Smile for the camera.

GIGGLING

Tell the camera how much you love being in The Passion.

ALL CHEER

All right, great.

Well, get yourselves ready. We'll get you going, and then you can go home.

Trying to organise the entrance

of about a hundred under-10-year-olds is quite something.

It's not something I've done before. I don't think you can do a course in it.

I don't think I'll be doing it again, but it's good fun.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Strong shape.

HE MOUTHS

Run, run, run, run, run!

Still.

# Hold my body down

# Ain't gonna hold my body down Ain't gonna hold

# My body down

# You're gonna hold my body down

# Hold my body down

# You're gonna hold my body down

# You're gonna hold my body down

# You're gonna hold my body down. #

Quite high up, that, isn't it?

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Has anyone been up on it yet?

No.

# Hold my body down

# You're gonna hold my body down

# You're gonna hold... #

The original Passion story took place in a country under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

Michael has updated that theme of occupation

into modern-day Port Talbot.

We're running two choruses at the moment -

the resistance group and the security/riot police,

the riot police obviously being the most aggressive

and part of the Company Man's militia,

and the resistance being the protest group protesting against ICU.

ALL: What do we want? ICU out!

When do we want it? Now!

ICU are our fictional Roman Empire.

They are the big industrialist corporate company

-that are...

-SHOUTING

..threatening a hostile takeover of Port Talbot,

or threatening a corporate takeover of Port Talbot.

So it's all kicking off now.

ALL: We see you. ICU! We see you!

ICU! We see you! ICU!

But eventually, some men will come for you. When they do,

all I want you to do is put your hands up, just doing that.

And then he is the one who's going down onto the ground.

-SCREAMS

-Get off me!

Joe, come and get me! Joe! Come and get me!

Get off me! Get off me!

-Get off me! Get off me, I'm warning you!

-Karen, Karen...

It's amazing. It's the Welsh, see. We love to have a shout.

Bully, bully!

Look at him, all by himself, now we're Mr Bloody Nobody.

We were amazed a few people came forward who've been politically active in the past.

Some people might have been involved in the miners' strikes, or involved in protesting

'against industrial groups in Port Talbot in the past.'

ALL: ICU! We see you!

ICU! We see you!

ICU! We see you!

ICU! We see you!

ICU! We see you! ICU...

'This scene is about normal human beings

'who feel like they have to do something to protect their town.'

ALL: Don't kill our town!

Don't kill our lives! Don't kill our town!

Don't kill our town! Don't kill our town!

Don't kill our lives! Don't kill our town!

The weekends are a chance to rehearse the big community scenes.

Although there's a huge amount of work still to do,

what the company have on their side

is the fine line between the play and reality.

The whole point is that we're telling a story about our town now.

I'm not trying to tell a story about something else.

We've tried to find a structure and a story that allows everyone to be themselves.

How did we get picked? I think they asked

who's kind of stood up for themselves in the past, am I right?

Who has done certain things and taken things further.

I've taken on lots of different people.

I don't really know if I can say,

but universities, airlines,

um...kitchen manufacturers.

-And anybody who was rude, really.

-SHE CHUCKLES

It's fantastic to see you all here. Thank you so much for coming down on Mother's Day,

but on a beautiful day.

This is our first chance, really, to put a large group of people, lots of different groups together.

This episode of the story, which is the first episode of the story,

that happens down here on Friday afternoon, involves lots of different groups.

Obviously, you can see that we've got the choir, band, gymnasts.

We have a pageant, we have a violin group, we have a circus group,

we have all different people here today.

It's our first chance to get the groups together, which is exciting,

but a little bit complicated as well.

So please bear with us and please be patient,

because it's our first chance to see how this might fit together

and where people might be and how this might work.

The group that aren't here are the audience, and we don't really know how many of those there may be.

There may be thousands, there may be my mum and dad and a dog.

ALL LAUGH

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

# It's a brand new day

# And I'm feeling good

# And I'm feeling good! #

I'm playing the role of the mayor. I have my instructions.

I have rehearsed part of this scene earlier in the week,

and it's just a matter now of joining bits up.

We are the dignitaries of Port Talbot.

We've put this pageant on on the beach,

so we're very proud to show people, and we're supporting the mayor.

What's happening here today now, do you know?

No. No. I just know we were supposed to be here at ten with our massive cable drums.

And I guess we're going to look at how we're going to slot

the routines that we've worked out into what the core cast have developed with the pageant.

We're done, yeah? Nobody told us, did they?

You have to tell me, because I've only just joined this morning.

-Have you?

-Yeah, Bill told me to come to this one this morning. So don't lose me.

-No, we won't.

Apparently, we're here to be resistance,

but it's the first time we've seen this big group, the rest of the group.

Usually we've been working as small groups.

It's when you stand there and you look at all these groups and people waiting around,

you think, "They're all waiting for us to say what's happening," and you just think,

"please, someone come along who knows what they're doing and take over." Then you realise, "That's our job."

Hello, you all right?

# Nid wy'n gofyn

# Bywyd moethus

# Aur y byd na'i berlau man

# Gofyn wyf

# Am galon hapus

# Calon onest

# Calon lan

# Calon lan yn llawn daioni

# Tecach yw na'r lili dlos

# Dim ond calon lan all ganu... #

Anthony Pugh is a roofer in Port Talbot -

and this man who spends his days looking down on the world from on high

has become the inspiration for the character of God.

David Davies, who is playing the part of God, has come to meet his role model.

I'm getting worried about this! Thanks very much! ALL LAUGH

I play the character of this person...

Anthony's skills go far beyond roofing.

Here come the buckets...

Standing here, Anthony, it's amazing, you feel like you're a roofer looking down at the town.

-That's right.

-Is this what you've done, you've recreated the world?

This it is, this is my view. God.

You are the inspiration!

This is what... You have now become me, or become God, whichever way you look at it.

You are now a big... This is what birds see.

-You go up in a plane, you don't see this, you've gone too high.

-Yeah.

You're now hovering over, and you see what I see. I'm up there,

perhaps I'm working on the Round Chapel and looking over to Tollgate,

and looking across the roofs, looking in the gardens... I'm not one of them...

LAUGHTER But I'm looking at the chimney pots, I'm looking at...

And it's a fantastic feeling.

So tell me, how many roofers do you know who don't like heights?!

-Er... So you don't like heights, do you?

-No, not very much,

-but we'll have to see how it goes.

-I've got a good blindfold!

'Not a great head for heights,'

but I haven't told anybody, because, obviously,

I didn't want to be...turfed off the project, so to speak.

Well, it holds fears for me in so much as that it is the climax of our production,

and we haven't been able to do a tech of it, or a dress rehearsal of it.

And not only is it a very complicated sequence anyway...

We've rehearsed aspects of it, but we've never been able to put everything together

with music and sound and light and action.

-The front of my foot, see where it's red?

-Yeah.

-That's because that's what I'm putting my weight on, it gets in the way.

-I can see.

-It's just slipping through.

-There's nothing to get onto.

Because my heel can't go on to it. My foot doesn't let my heel get on there,

it doesn't bend that way.

Potentially looking at...night-time, which will be cold,

no matter how hot it's been in the day, it'll still be cold,

because we are down by the sea, wind coming off the beach,

blowing cold water on to my naked body for about 15 minutes.

I remember the other day, Bill saying,

"The danger is hypothermia, that's what we have to be careful about."

I'm like, "Yeah, right, we have to be careful about it!"

The idea that I might get hypothermia up there is quite scary.

'The fact that I'm incredibly vulnerable up there, I can't move,

'I mean, I'm strapped in there...

'I may not be actually nailed, but I'm strapped in, I'm not going anywhere.'

And anyone who wants to do anything to me, they sort of can.

So there's just a natural fear about that.

But I think the adrenaline of doing the whole thing...

And it's very uncomfortable as well.

CHOIR SINGS

When the project was announced - a telling of the Crucifixion story

but without Jesus, without an orthodox resurrection, without any overt religious dimension -

some of the churches in Port Talbot were concerned.

Nigel Cahill is the vicar of St Mary's, near the town centre.

We were very concerned at the beginning of the project

that they should have an element of resurrection.

And we were especially concerned because it was happening on Easter Day.

And I had discussions

with one of the executive producers,

and she told me the story and listened to our concerns and fears.

Michael came, he told me the story,

he told me about what they planned as the resurrection scene.

In Michael's mind, he says that he is very clearly portraying

the story of Jesus of Nazareth,

but not in a traditional fashion,

and in a manner that opens the whole thing up to people of any faith and no faith.

I see nothing wrong in that.

Nigel Cahill is now so enthusiastic about the play

that on the Sunday before it starts, he's arranged a special church service in its honour.

The bringing of The Passion to Port Talbot

by Michael Sheen...

..is an amazing opportunity

for people who believe in Jesus to see how others react today

to a story of love, betrayal, sacrifice and passion.

As Easter week begins, a hectic round of final rehearsals are under way all over the town,

'including one in St Mary's churchyard.'

Yoo-hoo! Time to eat!

I think they look blinking gorgeous!

Dressing gowns are all the rage this Easter!

The biggest surprise for everyone is the weather.

This chorus of ghosts are all looking just a little red in the face,

thanks to the soaring temperatures.

I remember 172 Walter Street the best.

I think everybody's feeling the same - extremely hot.

We've got a few layers on, and especially we can't really wear silky dressing gowns,

it's more the old-fashioned one!

When I was lost to them, I felt hollow inside.

Sometimes I still feel the sun on my face, like good silk against my skin.

We officially now have over a thousand people performing,

and probably close to another thousand people that have done something else in the show -

that is absolutely incredible.

My family is going to be with me, you know?

And in the graveyards that are along here, my family are buried.

So there's that for me. And then it's the people I've met, and we really have all bonded,

old and new, we've come into lovely little groups, you know?

I don't think any of us have got an idea of what it's going to be like in totality.

While it's going to be absolutely terrifying -

every minute you'll be waiting for something to go wrong and to have to sort something out -

but at the same time, I think we just can't wait to see it.

For Michael, getting as many people as possible from the town to perform

has always been the point of The Passion.

However, for someone more used to the military-style organisation of feature films,

these last run-throughs are proving a nerve-wracking experience.

'I go from being in the depths of despair to being sort of...'

reasonably happy.

That's about as good as it gets. And the fact that the sun is shining

'makes a big difference.

'I tend to wake up in the morning and, for a moment, I feel sort of like,'

"Ah." And then, suddenly, this hand grabs my innards,

and I go, "Ugh!"

The actors are still getting the odd change,

we're at the stage of tweaking now.

But it's been organic from the start and it will continue to be so.

So three days and counting to the launch date of The Passion.

We're all very excited, a little bit stressed as well -

because trying to organise people in different places, and also all the safety stuff.

The town is tremendous, it's talking about it everywhere you go now.

There's so much to do, we just want to get it right,

and we're still not quite sure where we fit into everything.

At the Swn-y-Mor old people's home on the seafront, Michael has raced in to a last-minute rehearsal

of a dreamlike dance that will take place at dawn on the first day of The Passion.

It's a sequence that he's never even had a chance to look at before.

Unfortunately, there are not quite as many performers as anticipated.

There are more people, are there?

Hopefully, yes, if we can get hold of them.

-Right, OK.

-Their answer phones have been switched off.

-We're trying everything to get hold of people...

-OK.

'Certain things aren't there and aren't in place, or this group

'can't turn up, or this group can't be there until the day.

'You just have to make decisions, go, "OK, it's not happening, we just have to try and make this work now."'

This may be the last chance we get to see it,

so I'd love to know that we've built in something, just in case there isn't anyone else.

I'm thinking that we might need to have something that moves a little bit more.

-If we build the plot in today - what happens from the moment they go through the gate.

-Yeah.

-Let's do it, let's go.

-Anyone who's happy to get up on the platform, great.

And anyone else just stays in this area here.

And we all go through the sequence once here,

because then, down on the beach at that point, much further along, in the water -

and the tide will be out at this point - will be Nigel,

who plays The Stranger. He'll be standing in the water with his staff.

Are we still doing our movements?

-Once you've done the one sequence, you stop and just watch.

-OK.

That's Plan A.

Plan B, it's freezing cold and raining - as soon as you arrive here

-and you do the sequence, and he sees you, you go back, in the warm and dry.

-Oh, right.

-If it's cold.

And just remember - no matter how cold or wet it is, I'll be in the sea.

With only 24 hours to go, in the car park of the Seaside Social Club -

Port Talbot's answer to the Garden of Gethsemane -

there are still an awful lot of technical issues to resolve.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you can take your places, please,

and go from the arrest to move across to the truck...

For David Davies, the actor playing the Godlike figure of The Teacher's father,

the moment has finally arrived for him to ascend into the heavens.

That is, as long as he can keep his vertigo under control.

Luckily for me, I've got a wonderful person,

he is a circus performer,

and he has made it very safe for me. Once you're up there,

it's not too bad. I had to do it because last night, when I did it for the first time,

there must have been 100 people here.

So that's a situation you can't back out of!

So it goes, "What are you? I don't know the man."

-And then, "Are you ready, sir?"

-And then, "Are you ready, sir?" Is that what was going wrong before?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Who are you? Say it,

-you are the king of this town. Answer me!

-I don't...

-What are you?

What are you? I don't know the man!

We'll do it - "What are you? I don't know the man!"

-OK. Let's go from, "What are you..."

-What are you?

-I don't know the man.

'When it works, it will work fantastically.'

We're just half a turn off it at the moment, I think.

It would be nice to have a few more days.

I am!

-Take him!

-OK, let's move.

I think that the process that we've been on as a group

has gone from sharing that preconception that most people have,

which is, "What the heck are we going to find here?

"What happens? What are we going to work with? Who will be working with?

"What is there to do in Port Talbot?"

And actually, coming out this side, the pride is just immense.

I feel like I'm the mother of 2,000 people!

And I think that's how I'm going to feel on the weekend.

Maybe...

I don't know.

It's important to be ready, Simon.

Remember that.

Thanks.

-Are you the one they call The Teacher? Answer.

-If you say so.

Come with me, sir.

Get off him! Leave him alone!

ALL SHOUT

The final rehearsal is over,

and Michael and Bill have one last chance to rally their cast.

There are going to be mistakes, we only get one go at this whole thing.

And there's going to be so many variables on the day, with the audience there,

we don't know where they'll be a lot of the time, we don't know how they're going to react to things.

But the one thing that really works, given all those variables -

don't worry about making mistakes,

don't worry about it not being as slick as it should be,

just do it with commitment and confidence and enjoy it, and really inhabit it.

This is almost like a completely new form of theatre that we've invented! ALL LAUGH

And, you know, you are pioneers.

This is the first time an entire town

has been mobilised in the telling of a story sort of about itself.

And so just do it with confidence.

Tomorrow is Good Friday,

and for the next 72 hours,

these ordinary streets will become a stage for a unique event.

This is where a betrayal will occur.

This is where a trial will take place.

And this is where a man called The Teacher will be put to death on a cross.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]