Passion Day: A Project Review of Translation and Performance in Sicily

Presentation abstract

Abstract

This presentation focusses on a project I ran (funded by the University of Glasgow) in the city of Naro (Agrigento) around Passion Day on the 27th April 2025, marking the seventh year of this tradition. The project was based on conserving the long-standing tradition in Sicily of the Easter street procession which is rooted in centuries of popular culture, folklore, and ancient religious practices and currently at risk of disappearing.

Passion Day is an all-day event which re-enacts the Sacred Representations of the Passion of Christ. The event is hosted at the former monastery of St Agustine’s church. In 2025, 14 local theatre companies from all around Sicily were invited to participate in the event (over 400 actors. Each year, the companies perform a scene from the Passion of Christ (14 scenes in total). The script is adapted from Adam’s Ransom (1750), also known as The Martyrdom of Jesus Christ, which was written by the Sicilian playwright, Orioles Philip.

This presentation will provide an insight into the staging of Passion Day, offer an overview of the key features of our project, and conclude by underscoring the wider impacts on sustaining religious performance traditions through translation. Indeed, Passion Day had never previously involved any professional translators which meant that the performances had not been made accessible to non-Italian/Sicilian speakers. From this starting point, our project was aimed at inspiring new, more inclusive, approaches to staging the Sacred Representations and, more generally, at generating a new understanding of the value of preserving and promoting minoritised performance cultures.