A question occurs to me whilst reading a review of a play
(The Christ of Coldharbour Lane at the
Soho Theatre)
: what is the current narrative of the-churches-and-theatre ? It seems that there is a great deal of commentary (and some academic work) on the positions relating to church music, and a growing interest (since the 1980s) in the visual arts, but rather less on the theatre. The churches have used drama amongst themselves very creatively, both within congregations and as a mission tool, but I wonder what happened to the treatment of Christian symbols and ideas within art theatre outside the churches ? We know a bit about clerical objections to the moral behaviour of characters in plays, but there must be a broader story to be told about how the secular theatre handles religious themes. Any pointers to relevant literature would be very welcome.
1 comment:
I'm making my first posting on the blog in connection with your comment on the theatre. It's true that there hasn't been much serious historical work on this. One intriguing exception is work done by Rex Walford, now based in Cambridge, whose PhD 'As By Magic: the Growth of the "New" London north of the Thames and the response of the Church of England' (Anglia Ruskin University, 2003) deals with the Bishop of London's campaign to raise money to erect church buildings in new north London suburbs. The theatre connection here is that the main fund-raising event was a pageant about the history of London. In an incredible coup, the commission was accepted by TS Eliot and the outcome was 'The Rock' - much of which is now forgotten but the choruses continue to be regularly included in books of Eliot's poetry. Rex Walford, who tells the story, has for many years been heavily involved in religious drama and knows his stuff. More generally, I agree: within this wider need for an examination of the relationship between religion and the theatre (in a way that doesn't just do the tired old thing of focusing on examples of Puritan and evangelical dislike of the stage) there's plenty of scope specifically for a history of religious drama in the mid-20th century, given the number of connections which were made by both 'elite artists' (think of Britten's Church Parables, Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, etc.) and in the formation of hundreds of local church dramatic societies across the country. I don't know if such a study exists already? It would be interesting to speculate on why this interest was burgeoning at this point.
Ian
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