Callington residents who hold equivalent roles to those in biblical times agreed to play their corresponding characters in the Callington Passion Play on Easter Saturday. Town portreeve Jeremy Gist took on the role of Pontius Pilate. Local clergy played the chief priests and rulers, with the rector being the high priest. Members of all the local churches banded together to stage the play around the town, starting in St Mary?s Square at 11am. Jesus, alias Colin Frier, carried the cross through the town ? including Fore Street, New Road, Saltash Road, Granite Way and Florence Road ? to the reservoir field on Kit Hill, where the crucifixion was re-enacted. The empty cross was left standing there, floodlit, until late on Saturday night. Dennis Bristow, who helped instigator Ruth Littlewood organise the event, said the aim was to present the portrayal of the trial and crucifixion ?in a spontaneous way, as if it were happening today?. He said: ?The actual event wasn?t rehearsed: it was rushed through. We tried to do the same. ?It was a very moving experience and brought home some of the reality of what happened, the brutality and horror.?
