Last weekend the General Synod of the Church of England met to discuss the issue of women’s eligibility as bishops. Last weekend, newspaper headlines featured the appointment of openly homosexual cleric Dr. Jeffrey John as a nominee for the position of Bishop of Southwark. Last weekend, Drew Pautz’s play Love the Sinner closed after its successful two month run at the National Theatre. The National’s timing could not have been more appropriate in featuring the world premiere of Pautz’s play on the conflict within the Anglican church, as its leaders internationally grapple with the Church’s stance on homosexuality.
The play opens at a conference in an unnamed African country, with African church leaders denouncing the liberal policies of the Western Church, American Anglicans championing the Church ‘evolving’ with the times and a bearded Englishman, obliquely referred to as ‘Your Grace’, refusing to take a side. The story unfolds with a member of the Church conference having a homosexual encounter with a young African man who then turns up in London demanding asylum from the persecution he faces in Africa due to his sexuality. The experience of seeing Pautz’s play at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre was both riveting and refreshingly sympathetic to all the distinct voices and opinions present in the questions of the Church’s role throughout the world.
In a period when theatre is rising to address the issues sensationalized daily by the media, with examples ranging from the London success and New York failure of Enron: the Musical to the mixed response to David Hare’s commissioned play The Power of Yes on the current financial crisis, it is increasingly rare to find a piece of politically and socially relevant theatre that treats all perspectives as respectfully and artistically as Drew Pautz’s work. While I am eagerly anticipating Pautz’s next piece, Love the Sinner succeeded for me most in presenting a model of theatre with a social function that can gain recognition in London and beyond, perhaps even in Oxford.
In a university setting dominated by endless reprisals of Shakespeare’s canon, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Chekhov’s depressed families, I wonder if Oxford’s thesps can be inspired by the young Pautz to produce their own versions of socially relevant theatre. Yes, we’ve all applauded Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good and Churchill’s multiple dissections of gender roles, but Pautz’s play appears to have provided more than just another politicized approach to discussing the meta-theatricality of theatre and performance itself. Didn’t Ibsen, Shaw and even Shakespeare write their masterpieces on the pressing social, political and ethical challenges of their times? I would challenge Oxford playwrights to do the same: pick up a newspaper and write a play based on a headline.
An upcoming OUDS production is already leading the way: Frank McGuiness’ play Carthaginians is being staged 4th week of Michaelmas in the O’Reilly Theatre and echoes The National’s timing with Love the Sinner with its retelling of the events of Bloody Sunday in the wake of the Saville report from this June. I hope we can see many more similiar departures from the standard fare of Oxford drama in the future.
