Drama
The People’s Passion
This is advance notice of five plays I’ve written called The People’s Passion. They are to be broadcast during Holy Week on BBC Radio Four. The plays are set in and around an imaginary English cathedral and they tell the stories of the people who go to the cathedral to work or to visit, to pray or to protest. Their stories also echo aspects of the Passion.
The plays will be followed by short documentaries which explore five different cathedrals. (I visited eight or nine while I was writing the plays and bits of Ely, Chichester, Norwich and others went to make up my cathedral.)
One of the characters in the plays is a Director of Music so, as part of the project, the BBC has commissioned a brand new choral work. It will feature in the plays but we hope that it will also be performed by choirs across the country. This new work has music composed by Sasha Johnson Manning and lyrics by the poet Michael Symmons Roberts. I was lucky enough to be in Manchester when the piece was recorded and I found it both beautiful and moving.
You can read more about The People’s Passion – and both hear and download the music - on the BBC website. (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/peoples-passion)
Nick Warburton
Recent Events:
Remembering Rex: A celebration of Rex Walford's dramatic productions in connection with St Mark's. Selected scenes from shows over many years included: Spark in Judea, The Man Born to Be King, Whistle Down the Wind and the acclaimed 2010 premiere of Witness.
Held on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd October 2011 in church.
The Monarch of Wit: A dramatisation of Jone Donne's work by Stephen Siddall and James Clarkson. Held on Sunday 18 September in church.
Cell Talk: by Dana Bagshaw a play about Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe of Lynn
In Previous Years:
2010 - Witness: a re-enaction of St Luke's gospel - held at Michaelhouse.
2009 Drama Mini-Season
A HINT OF THE UNKNOWN GOD – presented by the Cameo Theatre Company. An exploration and celebration of the faith, fears and foibles of Sir John Betjeman (1906 – 1984)Sir John Betjeman (who died twenty-five years ago) is one of the few poets to be known and loved beyond the confines of the literati. He was Poet Laureate for twelve years and his Collected Poems have sold over three million copies – an unprecedented figure for a book of poetry.
MARK’S GOSPEL – LIVE!
Mark's Gospel LIVE was a solo performance by Joseph Morris. This dramatic piece has enjoyed over 200 performances throughout the US, UK, and Canada.
CHARLES DICKENS’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL
In 1859 Charles Dickens came to Cambridge and undertook a solo dramatic reading of extracts from A Christmas Carol as part of a nationwide tour. 150 years later, his great-great-grandson, actor, director and producer Gerald Dickens, repeated the event.
2007 Murder at St Mark's
A 'light-hearted triumph' (member of the audience)
Acclaimed playwright and St Mark' churchwarden, Nick Warburton, scripted a very different sort drama for our harvest supper.
Tickets were in the form of an invitation to the Harvest Supper wedding, and audiences came, suitably decked out, for the wedding of Charlotte Harvest and Anthony Supper.
Early in the proceedings, however, events took a very nasty turn, and Inspector Richard Dick Barton (who just happened to be in the congregation) stepped in to try and solve The Case of the Disgruntled Flower Arranger with the help of the audience-turned-witnesses.
2006 Spark in Judea
Cameo Theatre Company returned to stage two performances of R F Delderfield' play almost forgotten play (believed by the author to be the best piece he ever wrote) on Good Friday and Easter Eve. It proved to be an exciting and stimulating piece of theatre, drawing large, appreciative audiences.
2005 Whistle Down the Wind
A large cast of Newnham adults and children came together under director Rex Walford and musical director James Lark for four performances of Labey and Taylor' musical. Part of the north aisle of the church was temporarily transformed into the barn, where village children find a tramp whom they believe to be Jesus.
2005 Cell Talk
Cameo Theatre Company (run by two St Mark' members) staged a production of Dana Bagshaw' award-winning play about Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe of Lynn, as part of their East Anglian tour.
2004 The Man Born to Be King
In association with Cameo Theatre Company, an adaptation of Dorothy L Sayer' radio classic was staged at St Mark'. The cycle of twelve plays, which involved a cast of over 100, began in Jaunuary, with each play staged at the appropriate time in the church' calendar. It culminated with five plays spread over Holy Week and attracted national publicity and review.
2002 Do the Kings Still Wear Curtains?
A new version of Les Ellison's adult Nativity play was premiered, again to capacity audiences. In this the members of an traditional Nativity tableau set out to recruit younger deputies and then discuss the significance of their roles in a set of amusing and intriguing dialogues.
Why not join us?
If you would like to know more about (or be involved in) plans for future drama at St Mark's, come to a Sunday service and mention this to one of the sidespeople who will introduce you to one of the many drama enthusiasts in the congregation.
St Mark's is associated with the Religious Drama Society of Great Britain (RADIUS) whose headquarters are at 58-60 Lincoln Road, Peterborough PE1 2RZ.
