The Passion Play or Easter pageant is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus: his trial, suffering and death. The viewing of and participation in Passion Plays is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in the Catholic and Evangelical traditions; as such, Passion Plays are often ecumenical Christian productions.

Passion Plays have had a long and complex history involving faith and devotion, civic pageantry, religious and political censorship, large-scale revival and historical re-enactments.

The origin and development of Passion Plays in Great Britain can be traced back to one of the earliest pieces of theatre in Britain, which was the Quem Quaeritis: four lines spoken by two choirs addressing each other in a dramatic form. It can also be traced back to the liturgical drama used within the church and the Corpus Christi festivals which took place outside the church.

Passion Plays were the focal point of the Mystery Plays that were performed by city guilds in many medieval cities, the most prominent being York, Chester and Coventry. Public performances of Passion Plays lasted from the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth century, with a few examples into the seventeenth century. Richard Davy composed one of the earliest settings of the Passion according to St Matthew.

During the Reformation, the Passion Plays and Mystery Cycles were suppressed due to their perceived Catholic influences. Eventually, in 1642 all theatre was banned with the suppression of the playhouses by a Puritan Parliament. With the Restoration, theatres opened again in 1660, this time with women permitted to perform on the stage. However, religion and politics were heavily censored for the next few hundred years in England and no Passion Play was performed publicly during this time.

The modern revival of Passion Plays began with the revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, the Chester Mystery Plays in the 1970s and the York and Towneley Plays as part of the Edinburgh Festival in 1977.

The development of the Passion Play was about the same as that of the Easter Drama. It originated in the ritual of the Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons. Later, the Passion Play made its appearance, first in Latin, then in vernacular languages; contents and forms were adapted more and more to audience expectations, until, in the fifteenth century, the popular religious plays had developed. The Benedictbeurn Passion Play (thirteenth century) is still largely composed of Latin ritual sentences in prose and of church hymns, and, being designed to be sung, resembles an oratorio.

Yet even this oldest of the Passion Plays already shows a tendency to break away from the ritual and to adopt a more dramatic form. This evolution is shown by the interpolation of free translations of church hymns and of German verses not pertaining to such hymns, as well as by the appearance of Mary (the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) and Mary Magdalene in the action. From these humble beginnings, the Passion Play developed very rapidly, since in the fourteenth century it was at a stage of development that could not have been reached except by repeated practice. From this second period, we have the Vienna Passion, the St. Gall Passion, the oldest Frankfort Passion, and the Maestricht Passion. All four Plays, as they are commonly called, are written in rhyme, principally in German.