tree_and_leaf | (no subject)

Well, I finished listening to the 1970s "Man Born to be King", a somewhat abridged version of Dorothy L Sayers play on the life of Christ. On the whole, it is very good, both in terms of the plays themselves and the production, though I had a few minor niggles with the latter aspect. The great strength of the plays is the vivid characterisation; they all feel like real people. Of course, these days they sound like people from the 1940s, but that doesn't matter unduly. One does notice how expectations have shifted - the use of the KJV (or cod KJV) in linking narrative is jarring in combination with the much more modern sounding people, but I suspect that its use was a deliberately concilliatory gesture to those who were shocked by making Christ and everyone else talk like the listeners might. In fact, some-one apparently wrote to complain about Herod the Great telling his courtiers to 'keep their mouth such' as this was far too vulgar for 'a person so closely associated with Our Lord".

Sayers' versions of John the Evangelist and Mary of Magdala are both memorable, and her Matthew is pretty good too, though he occasionally seems to have wandered in from one of Bill Rumm's prayer meetings. What's perhaps most striking is the success with which Sayers handles the villains. There's Herod the Great - a statesman as well as a monster, and almost sympathetic, despite everything. Then Caiaphas, who is recognisable as kin to any number of cold-blooded but efficient politicians or civil servants who we meet elsewhere in British media culture (Sir Humphrey would, I think, have done exactly the same); a ruthless, urbane man who does something despicable, but who sincerely believes it to be for the good of the nation - and he's quite justified, if you grant his premises. And then there's Judas, who terrifies me, because he's all too believable: an idealist, a tremendously clever man who very nearly understands what Jesus is doing and teaching, the call to suffering and sacrifice - but, because he is too proud and suspicious to trust Jesus, ends up hating him and betraying him because he believes Jesus to be seeking power, and because he can't bear the possibility that he might be wrong (and, indeed, because he is jealous). There are good original characters, particularly Baruch the Zealot, a revolutionary who thinks that Jesus is impractically high-minded, and the semi-legendary centurion Proclus Longinus.

And, of course, there's Sayers' portrayal of Jesus, with which the whole thing stands and falls, and which is extremely good, making him sound both like a real, flesh-and-blood human being - with a sense of humour - , and suggesting that there is more to him than that. Unfortunately I wasn't entirely convinced by the actor playing Christ (I have no idea who it is - they keep giving the star as Gabriel Woolf - Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars and the voice of the Beast in "The Satan Pit", but I don't think it's him). He has a very deep, rich voice and to my mind sounds too old - but you can't win on this front; you're never going to get someone who everyone thinks sounds like Jesus.* More seriously, he was just a wee bit 'stagey', and I thought he overplayed the moaning a bit during the Crucifixion scene. On the other hand, I suspect it's probably rather hard to convey that convincingly on radio! And despite that, the Crucifixion play - which BBC 7 preceded with the standard 'you may find some of the scenes distressing' warning, which they normally reserve for pictures of starving children or the aftermath of bombing - was genuinely upsetting.

The rest of the cast is generally good, especially John, Judas and Caiaphas - and the person who played John the Baptist as a Free Church preacher was inspired. The accents, however, are all over the place. John, James and Phillip are very middle class; Judas appears to be speaking some version of modified Mummerzetshire, and there is a great diversity among the bit parts of the inhabitants of Judea. In particular, they had some of the minor characters using what sounded like a stereotypically central European Yiddish accent, for no discernible reason. The producer ought to have been dissuaded from using reverb on Jesus' voice at Significant Moments, too; it just sounded a bit daft.

The plays have been cut down to 45 minutes, which is a shame - they flow well enough, so to that extent it's a good job, but they missed out some fairly important scenes, such as the 'Sons of Thunder' episode or Mary of Magdalen's anointing of Christ. And they also missed out one of my favourite scenes, namely the Tremendously Awkward Dinner Party after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead.

1st Woman: ... Yes, but which is Lazarus? He's the one we came to see.

2nd Woman: Sitting next to our host - that quiet looking man with the dark eyes.

1st Woman: I don't know how anybody can bear to sit next to him. It would give men the creeps.

2nd Woman: Hush, dear! That's his sister Mary just beyond you - the red-haired girl.

1st Man: Lazarus and Jesus are having some kind of joke together.

1st Woman: Fancy laughing and joking after you've been dead and buried! It doesn't seem decent somehow.

1st Man: I suppose he really was dead?

2nd Woman: Oh dear, yes! My daughter-in-law's aunt is the woman who laid him out.

Move over to next group

3rd Woman: Do tell me, Lazarus (with a nervous giggle)hope I'm not being impertinent - but what does it feel like to be dead?

2nd Man: My dear! What a question to ask a man in the middle of dinner!

3rd Woman: Oh, but it's so important! Please!

Lazarus: Master, what shall I say?

Jesus (laughs): I'm sorry, Lazarus. You must do your best with it. But no state secrets.

Lazarus (as he speaks, the conversation dies away into an inquisitive silence): This life is like weaving at the back of the loom. All you see is the crossing of the threads. In that life you go round to the front and see the wonder of the pattern.

3rd Woman: What sort of pattern is it?

Lazarus: Beautiful and terrible. And - how can I tell you? - it is familiar. You have known it from all eternity. For He that made it is the form of all things, Himself both the weaver and the loom.

3rd Woman: I see. (she doesn't) But what I want to know –

2nd Man: That'll do, my dear. You are talking too much.

(Tension relaxes. Move over to next group)

3rd Man: Some people have the most extraordinary manners.

4th Woman: Yes, indeed. I made up my mind to behave exactly as though nothing had happened. I just said "well, my dear, I'm delighted to see your dear brother looking so fit."

3rd Man: I daresay the whole thing's been exaggerated. When I had that illness last spring I was unconscious five hours and had the most extraordinary dreams. I remember saying to my wife when I came to...

* Though if I'd been casting it then, I'd have wanted Robert Stephens. Though I've met people who think he was awful as Aragorn, which I suppose is the same phenomenon, really. I think I'd probably cast David Tennant today.

ETA:

parrot_knight informs me that Jesus was played by John Westbrook; John the Baptist was indeed John Laurie, i.e. Private Fraser from Dad's Army. That's the small strange world of British acting for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

angevin2.livejournal.com

I know people who dislike Stephens' Aragorn too. But they are silly, because he is awesome. Even though it makes both the Beeb LotR and the Branagh Henry V (in which he plays Pistol) weird. ;)

From:

A little orthodox and icony.

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