| Play: Written on the Heart |
By: Judy Dixey
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Posted: Friday, May 11, 2012 11:55 am
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With all the palaver around the new and convoluted (supposedly mysterious) language for celebrating the Mass being imposed upon us in the English-speaking world, we must be grateful that any small rebellions will not result in us suffering grisly torture and death; that was the fate meted out to anyone who disputed the authority of church over language in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.
These disputes are being brought to the stage for us in a number of current plays, the latest being 'Written on the Heart' by David Edgar, now in London’s West End.
It’s cerebral, powerful, moving –very thoughtful and thought-provoking. The drama moves through three periods:
-The ‘now’, which is 1610 and the time when The King James Bible was nearing its final version and senior clerics were arguing over a small list of texts which they could quote, when given the reference; and words like congregation versus church, elders versus priests were the source of bitter political disputes.
- The distant past, when Tyndale, on the eve of his execution in 1536, is visited by a young priest who is persuaded of the benefits of the Bible in English and smuggles out some of Tyndale’s final translations for publication;
- and the more recent past, the 1580s, when fear of Spain increased fear about the 'Old Religion'; if they were spotted by Protestant fanatics, any remnants in churches such as altar adornments, chalices, stained glass would be destroyed, and the individuals concerned would be in a great deal of trouble.
The play’s heroes are Tyndale and Bishop Andrewes, whose spiritual meeting in the ‘now’ is the pivotal denouement of the play.
Tyndale is shocked to hear that what he was executed for in 1536 was, within a year, accepted – ie the Word of God in English; and Bishop Andrewes, riddled with guilt from his own cruel fanaticism in the 1580s, and expected to adjudicate on the language disputes with his fellow clerics, learns from his ghostly encounter with Tyndale to consider what is, after all, Written on the Heart.
For more information on Written on the Heart, and to book tickets, see: http://theatreticketsuk.eolts.co.uk/tickets/written_on_the_heart/pg:72/showid:3261 |
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