Future of Edinburgh's outdoor 'Easter Play' thrown into doubt over funding crisis

But now one of Scotland’s biggest open-air theatre events is facing the axe after organisers admitted they were struggling to find enough financial backing to continue telling the story of Easter.

Audiences of up to 3000 have flocked to Princes Street Gardens in the heart of the Scottish capital for the annual free performance on Easter Saturday.

However Edinburgh-based company Cutting Edge, which was founded nearly 30 years ago, has warned churches across the city that the Easter Play event is “in jeopardy next year and beyond”.

The group says it has become increasingly difficult to attract support due to concerns that funding will be seen to be promoting a religious message.

Cutting Edge says it is also finding it increasingly difficult to meet the estimated £25,000 cost of staging the show because the number of trusts, foundations and trusts willing to pledge support has dwindled “significantly” in the face of the cost of living crisis.

The company - which specialises in community theatre initiatives and events, working with the disability sector and projects within the justice system - says its future has been put at risk after being repeatedly turned down for Creative Scotland funding.

Edinburgh’s Easter Play is staged by a community cast drawn from across the city, with a professional actor playing Jesus. More than 40 performers will appear in the latest production, which will focus on the women who were part of Jesus’s life.

The Princes Street Gardens event is believed to be the only large-scale open-air Easter Play being staged in Scotland this weekend.

However Suzanne Lofthus, the theatre company’s artistic director, said this Saturday’s show will be the last unless new financial backing can be found.

She said: “The funding situation is really quite dire at the moment, especially in the arts.

"At the moment, we've no money to put on the event next year. Some of our main funders who have supported us for years have indicated this will be the last year they can fund us.

"The pool of funders who are happy to fund anything seen to be religious has really decreased since Covid. There's a real unease about funding anything that might be seen to be promoting a religious message.

"I totally understand the challenges that funding what is a ‘Christian play’ brings, but I've always stuck to the fact that we are simply telling the Easter story, and making it free and accessible for anyone who might be interested. We’re not trying to shove a message down anyone’s throat.

"We live in such a wonderfully diverse world and that can be celebrated in many ways. The arts can bring communities together to create something special and the benefits of being involved in community theatre are far-reaching, but it’s seen as the poor relative of professional theatre.”

Cutting Edge has been one of the most vocal critics of Creative Scotland in recent months after a string of funding rejections.

Ms Lofthus added: “People are feeling depressed, tired and apprehensive in the theatre industry at the moment.

“We fully understand that Creative Scotland can't fund everything, but there needs to be a change in the current system.

“Our funding decisions have left us at a standstill and in survival mode. We’re not even treading water now, we’re drowning.”