"Isn't Passion a church play?"
That question (and any number of variations on it) has been presented to me any number of times in the last 18 months, and it's one I have struggled to answer. Yes it can be and no, it's a play that deals with a Christian theology. I just read a review of something being done at the Ivory, called A.D the Musical. The reveiwer from Post Dispatch called it a church play but did not elaborate on 'what' a church play is, called it amatuerish, and not a professional treatment of the material. So what exactly IS a church play? One dealing with a person's struggle with faith? One that presents biblical stories? One where only those of a certain faith would understand?
This has been a conundrum for me. Passion is not about a struggle of faith, unless it's the faith of the disciples or the audience or the Sanhedrin. Jesus (at this point in his life) is not unsure about his faith in God. Is he a little worried and concerned about the way he's supposed to die? - sure. How exactly do you get yourself psyched up to die a torturous, painful, humiliating death? And yes of course, he asks if there's any way this can be done where he doesn't have to submit to this horrific death, but he remains committed. And struggles with faith are not exclusive to the Christian community. Pretty sure human beings of all faiths question, fail, leave, come back, change and/or revise their thinking about God, the world, and our place in it. So that can't be what makes it a church play.
Biblical stories: Moses, Noah, Jonah, Abraham and Isaac, Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath - these are biblical stories about Jewish people, God's chosen people. The majority of the bible tells stories about Jewish people (the Old Testament is waaaay longer than the New Testament) and yet they are all lumped into a Christian theology and in my experience, no one really considers them tales of the Jewish people. Hmmm.
Amatuerish: this must deal with the poor direction, crappy music and lyrics, poor script, and range of acting/singing styles - none of which reflect on the material itself. It may very well be an amatuerish production, but I don't see how that contributes to the "church play" mentality.
Professional treatment: as I have said before, Passion was conceived for a professional theatre artists. This has been done before with Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. The truth is, the story of Jesus' Passion is A REALLY GOOD STORY. There's love, betrayal, violence, forgiveness, a good guy, a bad guy, and an arc that moves from wildly excited to poignant to despair to fear and violence to acceptance to redemption and back to love. It is similar to stories about mythological characters, we just don't seem to have anyone who believes in Poseidan, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Hades anymore. So what constitues the professional treatment? For me and for Passion, it's about having actors who understand what bodies in motion can say to an audience, it's about knowing the arc of the play, building the action and being so committed to those actions and the arc that the entire audience is engrossed and FEELS the climax, even if they don't believe in the particular theology. That is the actor's JOB. I know plenty of people at my church who know the story, believe in the theology but I don't want them in Passion because they do not possess the tools of an actor. I find it hard to believe that in producing Godspell, JC Superstar, the Mel Gibson movie The Passion, there was a box to check off if you are Christian. Producers want good actors, and the actor's job is to portray a character.
So I still don't have a good answer to the question about whether Passion is a church play. Thoughts?
That question (and any number of variations on it) has been presented to me any number of times in the last 18 months, and it's one I have struggled to answer. Yes it can be and no, it's a play that deals with a Christian theology. I just read a review of something being done at the Ivory, called A.D the Musical. The reveiwer from Post Dispatch called it a church play but did not elaborate on 'what' a church play is, called it amatuerish, and not a professional treatment of the material. So what exactly IS a church play? One dealing with a person's struggle with faith? One that presents biblical stories? One where only those of a certain faith would understand?
This has been a conundrum for me. Passion is not about a struggle of faith, unless it's the faith of the disciples or the audience or the Sanhedrin. Jesus (at this point in his life) is not unsure about his faith in God. Is he a little worried and concerned about the way he's supposed to die? - sure. How exactly do you get yourself psyched up to die a torturous, painful, humiliating death? And yes of course, he asks if there's any way this can be done where he doesn't have to submit to this horrific death, but he remains committed. And struggles with faith are not exclusive to the Christian community. Pretty sure human beings of all faiths question, fail, leave, come back, change and/or revise their thinking about God, the world, and our place in it. So that can't be what makes it a church play.
Biblical stories: Moses, Noah, Jonah, Abraham and Isaac, Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath - these are biblical stories about Jewish people, God's chosen people. The majority of the bible tells stories about Jewish people (the Old Testament is waaaay longer than the New Testament) and yet they are all lumped into a Christian theology and in my experience, no one really considers them tales of the Jewish people. Hmmm.
Amatuerish: this must deal with the poor direction, crappy music and lyrics, poor script, and range of acting/singing styles - none of which reflect on the material itself. It may very well be an amatuerish production, but I don't see how that contributes to the "church play" mentality.
Professional treatment: as I have said before, Passion was conceived for a professional theatre artists. This has been done before with Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. The truth is, the story of Jesus' Passion is A REALLY GOOD STORY. There's love, betrayal, violence, forgiveness, a good guy, a bad guy, and an arc that moves from wildly excited to poignant to despair to fear and violence to acceptance to redemption and back to love. It is similar to stories about mythological characters, we just don't seem to have anyone who believes in Poseidan, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Hades anymore. So what constitues the professional treatment? For me and for Passion, it's about having actors who understand what bodies in motion can say to an audience, it's about knowing the arc of the play, building the action and being so committed to those actions and the arc that the entire audience is engrossed and FEELS the climax, even if they don't believe in the particular theology. That is the actor's JOB. I know plenty of people at my church who know the story, believe in the theology but I don't want them in Passion because they do not possess the tools of an actor. I find it hard to believe that in producing Godspell, JC Superstar, the Mel Gibson movie The Passion, there was a box to check off if you are Christian. Producers want good actors, and the actor's job is to portray a character.
So I still don't have a good answer to the question about whether Passion is a church play. Thoughts?
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