A Gospel Play

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 249, 31 March 1944, Page 3

A Gospel Play

T would be reckless to believe that no listener will be shocked by the BBC play, The Man Born to be King, which the NBS will begin broadcasting next Sunday. Every play based on the Scriptures shocks somebody; and this play is not merely based on the Scriptures but is a translation of them. While there are no visible impersonations of Gospel figures, the Gospel story is presented in everyday language and Christ himself not merely speaks but argues. That is not only a sensation: it will continue, to some, to be horrifying. But the real question is: how many will be horriged and how many helped? The author of the play-cycle did not write it to please people or lull them into religious sleep. She wrote it to wake them up and shotk them-to "disturb" them, she says, with "an extremely disturbing -story." It was for that reason that the Religious Broadcasting Department commissioned it and the BBC gave it the airrisking, they all knew, the wrath of those who would condemn the performances as irreverent, blasphemous, or vulgar; and it is for the same reason, and with the same knowledge, that they, will be broadcast in New Zealand. Time, even in religion, moves on. The voices and attitudes of one age can be foolishness or a dull ‘weariness in another age. It is, for example, a little alarming in New Zealand — to those even with some ancestral preparationto hear a church service in broad Scots. "He said I gang and he didna’ gang." It will be alarming, at first, to hear Martha say: "How many to supper? The Rabbi and you and us three-that’s five"; or the Centurion telling Simon on the road to Calvary to cut out his back-chat. Well here is the author’s answer: "To make of His story something that could neither startle, nor shock, nor terrify, nor excite, nor inspire a living soul is to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame." It will be interesting to see how ‘many in New Zealand say Amen.