REVIEW | Gospel of Mark
April 12th 2000 02:09
OPENING NIGHT 12 APRIL 2000
Always Working Artists Pty Ltd
present
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
@Belvoir Street Theatre - Downstairs
25 Belvoir Street, SURRY HILLS, NSW
Translations used:
King James Version (1611)
New American Standard Bible (1971)
New International Version (1978)
Scholars Version (1994).
Director: Jeremy Rice
Performers: Paul Lum, Kate Rice, Gerard Sont.
The Bible is full of wonderful stories that have circulated for hundreds of years. The Gospels are full of wise sayings, thought and miraculous deeds. This production presents a cut and paste of the Gospel of Mark in a very conservative and educational way, which may be just the ticket for you at this time of year.
The most curious images include Gerard Sont flogging himself with a leather belt; The kitchen table hanging from the ceiling; The little tricks that spring out of nowhere, but don't be afraid, this is not hard core edgy theatre. It will not offend anyone's sense of clean Christian taste.
The actors personalise their telling of the story in that robotic way that religeous zealots often do, to the extent at times of using accents to find humor in what is essentially a mysterious horror story that compels one toward a sense of wonderment. The actors use focus very well and perform with a strong sustained ensemble delivery.
I didn't much appreciate the first accent rolling off the tongue being an American one. A Southern American accent at that. It put me right off because of the hideous associations I have with evangelical ministries and televised sermons, after all they're just the sort of thing that Joshua, or Yesu attacked the merchants in the temple over. (My father was a Baptist lay preacher)
Curiously the actors adopt and drop the accent often, to an Australian one, then New Zealand gets a jibe followed by standard British dottyness with Sont providing a few other accents and funny voices as the story unfolds.
Gerard Sont is very sharp. His performance sometimes distracts against Kate Rice's softer approach while both are performing out front on the small downstairs stage at Belvoir Street Theatre. Rice has some very nice qualities to watch, she easily breaks the fourth wall conventiion and communicates with the audience. The acting is very assured.
The story calls for a range of demons to possess various people which is good fun to watch in Sont's hands particularly. The jokes are suitable for children, Sont's flogging scene is strong enough to imprint a nasty sense in the kiddies minds if they're there to learn the 'good book' as it were and the red marks on his back are real even if they do fade very quickly, it will not cause nightmares.
No one gets hurt but the kitchen table does hang upside down from the ceiling. Paul Lum sits quietly peeling the skin off potatoes for some time looking like the purest Christian soul. His calming smiles and dry assertions get quite scary. There is a sinister horror that lurks in the story and manifests in a kind of surreal way at times. The lighting flicks from state to state with dramatic puropse, grabs of sound rise a few times, water is used very well albeit briefly. The whole story is told without a candle I think, there was a nice bowl of dried apricots and grapes on the table, they drink the wine, eat the brad, I mean the bread - if you don't know the story it's really quite a good yarn. Quite spooky.
I didn't get a sense of deep emotional vulnerability in the telling of the story from the performers but there was some excellent precision involved in the delivery of some of the work. If you're into the Gospels you will have plenty to enjoy in this production. Wonderful stuff for Bible Study Groups and everyone getting into Lent, it's not exactly my cup of tea but I would forgive anyone for enjoying it because I was raised a bloody Christian for God's sake, and you know, you have to!
It was so Christian it almost suffocated me; for me it was like a big recap of Sunday School and I never wanted to go there, I couldn't, but it was very well done for an audience who would really like to go and see this type of thing and I have no doubt they'll flock to it. It could have been the most awful thing to sit through but it wasn't, that's another review.
Congratulations to Always Working Artists Pty Ltd for 'The Gospel of Mark', a timely reminder to good Christians everywhere that live theatre is a good option.
David Paul Jobling
Always Working Artists Pty Ltd
present
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
@Belvoir Street Theatre - Downstairs
25 Belvoir Street, SURRY HILLS, NSW
Translations used:
King James Version (1611)
New American Standard Bible (1971)
New International Version (1978)
Scholars Version (1994).
Director: Jeremy Rice
Performers: Paul Lum, Kate Rice, Gerard Sont.
The Bible is full of wonderful stories that have circulated for hundreds of years. The Gospels are full of wise sayings, thought and miraculous deeds. This production presents a cut and paste of the Gospel of Mark in a very conservative and educational way, which may be just the ticket for you at this time of year.
The most curious images include Gerard Sont flogging himself with a leather belt; The kitchen table hanging from the ceiling; The little tricks that spring out of nowhere, but don't be afraid, this is not hard core edgy theatre. It will not offend anyone's sense of clean Christian taste.
The actors personalise their telling of the story in that robotic way that religeous zealots often do, to the extent at times of using accents to find humor in what is essentially a mysterious horror story that compels one toward a sense of wonderment. The actors use focus very well and perform with a strong sustained ensemble delivery.
I didn't much appreciate the first accent rolling off the tongue being an American one. A Southern American accent at that. It put me right off because of the hideous associations I have with evangelical ministries and televised sermons, after all they're just the sort of thing that Joshua, or Yesu attacked the merchants in the temple over. (My father was a Baptist lay preacher)
Curiously the actors adopt and drop the accent often, to an Australian one, then New Zealand gets a jibe followed by standard British dottyness with Sont providing a few other accents and funny voices as the story unfolds.
Gerard Sont is very sharp. His performance sometimes distracts against Kate Rice's softer approach while both are performing out front on the small downstairs stage at Belvoir Street Theatre. Rice has some very nice qualities to watch, she easily breaks the fourth wall conventiion and communicates with the audience. The acting is very assured.
The story calls for a range of demons to possess various people which is good fun to watch in Sont's hands particularly. The jokes are suitable for children, Sont's flogging scene is strong enough to imprint a nasty sense in the kiddies minds if they're there to learn the 'good book' as it were and the red marks on his back are real even if they do fade very quickly, it will not cause nightmares.
No one gets hurt but the kitchen table does hang upside down from the ceiling. Paul Lum sits quietly peeling the skin off potatoes for some time looking like the purest Christian soul. His calming smiles and dry assertions get quite scary. There is a sinister horror that lurks in the story and manifests in a kind of surreal way at times. The lighting flicks from state to state with dramatic puropse, grabs of sound rise a few times, water is used very well albeit briefly. The whole story is told without a candle I think, there was a nice bowl of dried apricots and grapes on the table, they drink the wine, eat the brad, I mean the bread - if you don't know the story it's really quite a good yarn. Quite spooky.
I didn't get a sense of deep emotional vulnerability in the telling of the story from the performers but there was some excellent precision involved in the delivery of some of the work. If you're into the Gospels you will have plenty to enjoy in this production. Wonderful stuff for Bible Study Groups and everyone getting into Lent, it's not exactly my cup of tea but I would forgive anyone for enjoying it because I was raised a bloody Christian for God's sake, and you know, you have to!
It was so Christian it almost suffocated me; for me it was like a big recap of Sunday School and I never wanted to go there, I couldn't, but it was very well done for an audience who would really like to go and see this type of thing and I have no doubt they'll flock to it. It could have been the most awful thing to sit through but it wasn't, that's another review.
Congratulations to Always Working Artists Pty Ltd for 'The Gospel of Mark', a timely reminder to good Christians everywhere that live theatre is a good option.
David Paul Jobling
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