The production of The Miracles by Gordon Honeycombe in Consett Civic Hall in 1970 was a community venture that saw itself as something of a local Oberammergau passion play, and did not involve the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A compilation of medieval mystery plays, it had a large cast drawn from towns and villages of north-west Durham. Honeycombe attended auditions for bigger parts – Christ, Herod, Pilate – and was involved in later rehearsals, bringing some ITN glamour to the windy foothills of the Pennines. I was little more than an upwardly mobile spear-carrier – more precisely, second torturer, effecting the crucifixion each night.
