Mark my Words!

Most recently a team of people at Wesley Memorial has written and produced Mark My Words! You could say that writing a musical by committee is taking Methodist principles too far, but it's an approach that worked.

The show is based on the last events of the Gospel of Mark. Mark, a newspaper reporter, is sent to find out who this Jesus character is and along the way he makes some remarkable discoveries about himself and about the nature of God's love.

The performances took place on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th November 2006.

Barleytime

The story of Ruth (produced 1991 and 2000)

The book of Ruth is one of the world's earliest and loveliest short stories. Set in the wild and violent times of the Old Testament Judges, it comes as a brief pastoral interlude amid the hair-raising tales that surround it - an everyday story of country life where goodness and faithfulness triumph over hardship, and love in the end wins the day. It shows God intimately concerned in the humble affairs of ordinary people, weaving their loyalty and righteousness into His great tapestry of salvation. And it is all told with a beautiful simplicity and lightness of touch.

In both action and dialogue Barleytime sticks closely to the original - even the popcorn is there in the Bible (although translated as "parched grain" it doesn't sound so appetising). Three thousand years on, many of the customs and conventions may strike us as quaint or odd or downright absurd; it would be easy to dismiss it simply as an ancient story with a certain naive charm. And yet so many of the images and issues it raises remain strangely topical. Refugees still flee from famine; in so many parts of the world women are still downtrodden, widows destitute, foreigners degraded; still there rises on every side "the terrible, silent cry of the poor". Today more than ever there is a need for the rich to enter into a partnership of trust and respect with the poor - learning to receive as well as to give, willing to understand that above and beyond the need for "charity" lies the need for justice and honest dealing.

It was with some of these underlying themes in mind that it was suggested that we should write a story based on the book of Ruth. But just as the original story is not a sermon but a celebration, so our chief hope was that Barleytime would be fun - which it certainly has proved to be.

Francis!

The life of St Francis of Assisi (produced 1989 and 1990)

Because Francis travelled light, he travelled fast. In a short life he covered vast distances, both literally and metaphorically, and went at a physical and mental pace which left most people breathless. It is clearly impossible to begin to do justice to such a man in a couple of hours.

The action is based somewhere in the Italian countryside in the 15th century, where a band of troubadours and minstrels are rehearsing their new production. Their company playwright has written a new play about St Francis to celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The action alternates between scenes in the play, and discussions among the troubadours about Francis and his unique way of life.

The troubadours' play concentrates on a very few episodes from Francis' action-packed life. All are taken from a well-established body of legend, much of it written immediately after Francis' death. A lot is undoubtedly historically true, while some seems to fall more into the realm of fiction. But the early biographers, rather like the writers of the Gospels, wrote with one purpose: to convey to the world what an extraordinary man Francis was, and what an extraordinary impact he made on the world.

Alternativity

A musical for after Christmas
(produced 1985, 1996 and 2008)

Alternativity was written for the young people's group at Wesley Memorial: written both as an outlet for their considerable musical talent and enormous enthusiasm, and to provide occupation for the rather blank week between Christmas and the return to school. It is a play about a group of characters who, for various reasons, succeed in completely missing the first Christmas. The title says it all: Alternativity because it shows the well-meaning group of patriarchs, prophets and kings up in heaven dismissing as absurd God's scheme for the nativity, and laying their own alternative plans. And Alternativity because it deals with alternatives: the choice to organize things one's own way or wait for God to do the organizing; the choice to stay as one is, hiding behind excuses, or to go in search of the Christ-child. So although it is designed to be entertaining and light-hearted - an all-singing, all-dancing, all-exploding spectacular - there is underneath the frivolity a hard core of truth about the Christian life.

For some pictures of the 2008 production see this page.

Alternativity has been published and is available by contacting the authors, Clare Matthews and Anthony Eddy, via the church office at Wesley Memorial.

RIDE! RIDE!

We sang the Chorus parts for a concert production of Penelope Thwaites' energetic musical on the life of John Wesley in June 2003. (Directed by the composer)

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

We staged a highly successful production of Joseph in November 2003.

Moses

In the pipeline: a team is working on creating a musical using the story of Moses.

Moses team page