So I Went to the Mystery Plays...

... and am really glad that I went! At first, I was hesitant to attend the play because I have a lot of work to do today and the Seahawks game was on during the performance (go Hawks!). But it was well worth it. It was my first time seeing a Whitworth Theater production, and I was very surprised with the level of talent my peers have! You go, theater department!

            During the production, I tried to place myself in the position of the original audience member of the Wakefield plays – a poor, illiterate layperson from medieval England. The plays were created in order to educate community members about Biblical stories, so when I was viewing Whitworth’s performance, I began to wonder: what would I be learning? And, other than the major plot points of Biblical stories, there was a lot of theology thrown into the performance that would provide a layperson with aspects of the Christian faith. During “The Killing of Abel”, the character Abel gives a short description of what a tithe is, and that 1/10 of one’s income is the proper tithe. And, when the “Shepherds” from “The Shepherd’s Play” gave their gifts to the baby Jesus, they presented whatever they could muster up, teaching the importance of generosity and further emphasizing the importance of tithing from earlier in the production. I also found the characterization of God in the play to be especially instructive on the nature of God; by presenting God as three people, speaking in unison, the complex theological idea of the trinity becomes more understandable for a layperson.

            Another aspect of the production I’d like to touch on was the adaptation of the Mystery Plays for a modern audience. The program states that the members of the Theater Department “have tried to honor these theatrical traditions in our own production… and have spent many fun-filled hours playing with ways to do so.” The cast and crew are acknowledging that they have, in fact, changed things in the play in order to cater to the Whitworth audience – and perhaps to send messages to us just as the plays did to the laypeople of medieval England.

            In the transition between “The Killing of Abel” and “The Flood”, dancers from the Ensemble performed what was supposed to be a representation of humanity’s collapse back into sin; this dance was to portray what God viewed as despicable, and what caused him to flood the Earth. This dance was performed to electronic music, almost reminiscent of the EDM genre that is sweeping the nation. I was automatically brought to think about “raves” and current the “rave culture” that our generation is so wrapped in. Was the production intentionally using this music to comment on the corrupt happenings at “rave”/EDM events? Is this a good representation of our generation’s corruption?

            And, for that matter, is the CEO a good choice to represent Pharaoh from “The Flight Out of Egypt”? What about presenting the three kings from “Herod and the Three Kings” as an artist, scientist, and scholar? Are these things what our generations values as royalty? And is the CEO as oppressive as the Biblical Pharaoh? Theater Department’s choice to adapt the play to modern times was very smart as it forces the audience to consider our culture in a biblical context.