While the Canadian Badlands Passion Play added new features to its script this year, the beauty and context of its location is still what really draws you.

The Badlands stark landscape inspires your imagination to Jerusalem’s countryside, and the surrounding hills provide perfect hiding places for offstage actors and effective dramatic entrances.

While at first you spot the choir and musicians behind you, soon one is far too entranced in the atmosphere for the music to make you conscious of their presence.

The acting crowd has costumes in full historical colour as they portray the day to day life of the culture, and as though they are one organ, the crowd flows from scene to scene as if you were witnessing a live ancient town before our eyes.

With nearly 150 amateur actors on stage the play had surprisingly few hiccups and was led with superior performances by Nathan Waldschmidt as Jesus and Tim Hildebrand as the narrator, the apostle Matthew. The two brought the story to life with Walschmidt’s Jesus perfecting the difficult balance between humble human and all mighty God. While Hildebrand holds a vital link to the audience as the narrator, he also uses that connection to create an emotional transformation, from despised tax collector, to a humble and devoted apostle.

The surprise, and gem of the day was a new character added to the play, named Ruth, who played by Breanne Kruis, is a young girl not more then 10, and forces upon you both emotions of joy and sorrow as she goes from a free loving child, to a mourned young death, and then revived back to life again by the mystery that is Jesus Christ.

  The play is heading into its second and final summer weekend with shows performing all the way up to July 13.

For more information on the play and how to get tickets, you can go to their website at www.canadianpassionplay.com, or call their toll free number at 1-888-823-2001.