Sarah Ruhl presents themes of the separation of church and state as well as the exploration of personal identity in her dynamic, humorous and engaging show, Passion Play. Her play uses the historical presentation of the religious show, the passion of the Christ, as a backdrop for a small community to explore their own identity in the contexts of the characters they play. The presentation of the passion also becomes a platform for world leader’s political agendas. Ruhl seamlessly flows between reality and magical realism to connect these themes of identity and politics together. The play utilizes cycles of history to further emphasis the blurred lines of personal morality and political intent. The complete show combines three full length storylines …show more content…
Passion Play utilizes double casting so that the actor who plays Jesus in the play within the play reprises his role in all three parts. The same style applies to the other main characters of Pontius, who portrays Pontius Pilate in the passion, as well as Mary 1, who plays the Virgin Mary, and Mary 2, who plays Mary Magdalene. By making this casting choice, Ruhl shows how different environments and current events affect the character’s struggle with their inner morality while dealing with portraying famous characters. There is a twofold effect of the character 's struggles with their own morality and actions while rehearsing the passion within the play as well as the play’s presence within the society itself and how religion can be manipulated to reflect certain political views. Both these issues are resurfacing in modern society in light of the church and state clashes in the political debates. There are cycles and problems that happen time and time again, forcing the audience to become more aware that they are also part of the cycle and current world events of religion and identity are being utilized in political agendas. Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play creates situations that question politics, religion, and judgement based on one’s identity so that the audience may reflect on their …show more content…
All three parts, in some fashion, present the religious play of the passion of the Christ by coming together as a community and rehearsing to perform the show. It is the performance of the passion as well as the double casting that links the three parts together. The play within a play creates a static backdrop for the action and conflict between characters to occur, as well as a link to religion and history dating all the way back to the Middle Ages. The passion has historically been a show that could be easily manipulated for the wills of the people to show a particular point. The original words were derived from the liturgy of the church and spoken aloud during services. Main points included the events taking place on Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) like Judas’ betrayal, Jesus’s trial and sentence before Pontius, the carrying of the cross, and dying on the hill side. Jesus’s self-sacrifice for the sake of the sins of the world is the core value of the Christian faith, thus making it a storyline to survive the ages and surpass international boundaries. However, the versions of the passion seen in Ruhl’s play did not come to fruition until many years after the original liturgy. As popularity for the spoken passion grew, members of the church thought the death of Jesus would be more appreciated by the people if the context of Christ’s teachings was also presented. The self-sacrifice
Tony Kushner, in his play Angels in America, explores a multitude of issues pertaining to modern American society including, but not limited to, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Through his diverse character selection, he is able to compare and contrast the many varied experiences that Americans might face today. Through it all, the characters’ lives are all linked together through a common thread: progress, both personal and public. Kushner offers insight on this topic by allowing his characters to discuss what it means to make progress and allowing them to change in their own ways. Careful observation of certain patterns reveals that, in the scope of the play, progress is cyclical in that it follows a sequential process of rootlessness, desire, and sacrifice, which repeats itself.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
... of all time, with a protagonist that is plagued with indecision, but spurred by a desire to avenge his father’s death. At the time of the play’s writing, religion was by far the largest influence on the lives of ordinary people, and the protagonist’s defiance of God for most of the play could only end in tragedy.
Christianity has had a major impact in European history as the majority of the populations were Christians, and as many nations started out as Christendom. Even today, it has a profound impact in the decision making of nations and billions of people who follow its doctrine. Therefore, representing Christianity through the medium of art was an important factor artists had to consider. Many artists decided to paint the scene of the Crucifixion of Jesus as it is considered to be the most important scene for many Christians. Some artists, like Christus, opted for a more emotionally muted route while other artists, like Crivelli, went on to capture the emotional distress of the scene. Neither method is objectively better than the other as both artists
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream may come off as a simple comedy but is a complex play with many interesting aspects. Passion, a significant characteristic, is often expressed through the play. Characters in the play show passion for different reasons; Puck passions for mischief, Helena for Demetrius’ love and Bottom for theatrics, are a few of the many examples. Passion shows much significance, being the most important characteristic in the play.
The pointedness of the play is created through a distinct plot path. The observer is lead through the story, seeing first how greatly Amanda Wingfield influences her children. Secondly, the play-goer notes how Tom Wingfield desperately struggles and writhes emotionally in his role of provider- he wants more than just to be at home, taking care of his all-too-reminiscent mother and emotionally stunted sister. Tom wants to get out from under his mother’s wing; his distinct ambitions prevent him from being comfortable with his station in life. Lastly, Laura struggles inside herself; doing battle against her shyness, Laura begins to unfurl a bit with Jim, but collapses once again after Jim announces his engagement and leaves her, again. Each character struggles and thrashes against their places in life, but none of them achieve true freedom. This plot attests to the fact that true change and freedom can only come through the saving power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, and by letting go of the past.
Christ, as the ultimate sacrifice in Christianity, gave his own life for the benefit of others. His self-sacrifice continues to this day to be celebrated in the Catholic Mass. Through communion, or receiving the Eucharist, one is able to actively partake of the fruits of that sacrifice. But how does one follow Jesus’ example? One surely cannot strive for the same kind of physical death that Jesus experienced. Thus, practice of another form of self-sacrifice becomes necessary.
Brown, Raymond. A Crucified Christ in Holy Week: Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1986.
In Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the interconnection of people and events, that might ordinarily be viewed as disconnected or unrelated, is implicitly presented in the characters section. Dual roles are implemented by a playwright that has one actor portraying the roles of two or more characters, with or without thematic intentions. The use of “dual roles” in several scenes of this play can be viewed as a demonstration of Kushner’s effort in maintaining the interconnectedness between characters, communities (i.e. queer, heterosexual, AIDS and political communities) and events to which they are relative. This essay will argue that Kushner’s use of dual role’s effectively interconnects characters, events and their communities that may be seen as usually unrelated. Analysis of four specific characters, Antarctica, Oceania, Australia and Europa, in Act Five, Scene Five of “Perestroika”, will demonstrate the connection of each Act Five, Scene Five character, to the actors main character based on the implicit evidence presented in the actors “primary” and “secondary” roles, the scenes dialogue and the character interactions. As one will see, by implementing dual roles, Kushner is able to expand or preserve the concept of a major character while the actor portrays another character, keeping the audience from having to completely renegotiate their knowledge between what they physically see of new characters and actually use the new context to view triumphs and struggles for a major character.
As the title of the film should make apparent, the main focus of The Passion of the Christ is the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection
This paper is a critique of a production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo, a play written by Alfred Uhry, which was performed and produced by the Ball State University Theatre. Gilbert L. Bloom directed the production and was very successful with producing a truly entertaining, comedic play with an important message about the personal dilemmas that we as individuals with different beliefs and values must encounter in our daily lives.
Many subjects have been spoken of over the history human beings. For some time it may have a world war, at other times a great recession, in another day it would have been a very fast athlete, at others the final match of Champions League and many more. Yet in all these occurrences that grip the human mind for some time there is no occurrence more spoken than the crucifixion of a man called Jesus Christ (Zugibe 33). His crucifixion has even been a study for the entire lifetime of many people. Institutions have been built primarily for the purpose of studying this crucifixion. Some have said this crucifixion has changed their lives. Others have retorted that it has lifted off their worries. It is widely known and embraced. However, aside from all this, with all the goodness this man Jesus Christ is preached to have, many wonder why he would be killed on a cross.
The two topics of religion and hypocrisy in the play go hand in hand. The overall play is intended to ultimately bring to light religious hypocrisy, but not to necessarily demoralize it. The play aims to make fun of religious hypocrisy, while hinting that it’s problem or flaw is the way it slanders and makes one question the grandeur of pure religion. Tartuffe’s character portrayal is made up solely by his outspoken and unapologetic displays of religious devotion. Through his actions and displays of religious devotion he gains Orgon’s trust and manipulates him into overlooking his family's wellbeing and overall safety. He used Orgon's want and need to feel close to God himself against him, which left Orgon blinded by ignorance and own self
The play, set in the 1600’s during the witch hunt that sought to rid villages of presumed followers and bidders of the devil is a parallel story to the situation in the US in the 1950’s: McCarthyism, seeking the riddance of communist ideologists. Miller sets this story more particularly in a village called Salem, where the theocratic power governed by strict puritan rules require the people to be strong believers and forbid them to sin at risk of ending up in hell. However, the audience notices that despite this strong superficial belief in God, faith is not what truly motivates them, but it is rather money and reputation.
Since this is a review and its based on my opinion, I would have to say this was one of the worst plays I've ever seen in my life. I wasn't entertained by the play at all. The only good parts were the good-looking girls in the play. I like the main character Marisol based only on her looks. She played on ok job of acting. I realize she had a lot of lines to memorize which she had down, but she just didn't get to me. I think the costumes were ok. They had nothing special, or out of the ordinary except for the angel's wings, which were pretty nice. I didn't like the lighting or the scenery. I didn't know where the scene was supposed to be at some points.