St Paul, fringe theatre blog
Inspired by saints? Faith?
Maxie Szalwinska, who keeps a blog here, has just started a fringe round up for the Guardian and contributes to their culture vulture blog. Give her ideas and let’s support her.
She has a post about the audience’s reaction to Paul, the new Howard Brenton play at the National. Billington review here.
Billington writes:
Brenton springs a dramatic surprise late in the play. As Paul awaits death in a Roman prison in AD65, he is confronted by seemingly incontrovertible evidence that his conversion was based on a lie: that Christ survived his crucifixion, did not rise again, and was not the Son of God. As Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance and so is our faith.”
Brenton’s point is that Christianity is based on an unfounded myth.
Regardless of the controversy, a play exploring faith is intriguing. We all live by various degrees of faith and examining the Christian one – one of humankind’s strongest – through fiction and story is important. An examination of faith. It needs to be done more often, I think.
Whether that is the faith in religion and why we do things in the name of religion or God. Eg a crusade or a jihad.
Or faith in science and why we do things in the name of scientific progress or not.
(see here for story about stem cell researcher and the ethical controversy surroding his reserach ova)
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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