ReviewPICTURE CAPTIONS

for the review of ‘WHOSE KINGDOM RULES?’

IMG 5998 Pilate (Mark Cufflin), Pilate’s wife (Carrie Gelder), Lucius (Bob Burt), Servant (Colin Garner)

IMG 6010 The full cast with Elaine Butcher on left (costume designer) and David Nunn (writer and director) on right.

Next time you are wondering what to do consider whether there is anything interesting on in Purbeck .

On Good Friday, at Noon, over a hundred people from age five to age

ninety turned up to see a play. Women in pretty dresses and men in

smart polo shirts and jeans as well as others in their weekend clothes

crowded into the building. The play was about human nature; about a

man who wanted to do the right thing but was bullied by another to do

the wrong thing. Having done the wrong thing (not insisting the

innocent man be freed) he threw a life line to save the innocent man

by allowing the loud, clamouring public the final decision. They

could decide whether to free a man innocent of any crime or a robber.

The crowd, shouting and vicious, chose to free the robber and kill

the gentle man. A story for all time.

You might wonder who were the characters in this spell binding

play ? The main character was Pontius Pilate and he was on stage

almost all of the time. What an actor. Give that man a statue !

Pilate didn't want to have Jesus killed but a local senior priest

wanted him killed the very next day before sunset. The Chief Priest

told Pilate not to concern himself about the man they had arrested.

He simply wanted Pilate's seal on the document to have him killed and then .. well we know what happened.

It was moving to see Pilate's wife so aware of the dreadful

situation as she tried to save Jesus of Nazareth. We, the audience,

were there, in the room with Pilate as various people came to him pulling his mind, his conscience this way and that. He didn't put his

seal to the death warrant. He thought the crowd would save Jesus, he

let them chose but they chose to set the criminal Barabbus free We

saw the Chief Priest with his wily ways, Lucius, Drusus and the

servant concerned yet without power. Later came Joseph of Arimathea

to give the body a safe burial. This was another man who could have

saved Jesus if he had spoken up and out. So although it might be

said this is a play about Jesus, and it is, it is also about speaking

out against injustice : That is, speaking out when we might be

criticised or ridiculed because it is the right thing, the honest thing, the good thing to do.

Right at the end the tomb is empty and the message is passed around.

The Play "Whose Kingdom Rules ?" was written by David Nunn and

presented by Swanage Churches together. The actors and the writer

were applauded. Swanage Churches together deserve applause too

because they show understanding and tolerance to each non-violent religion and church and worked together to put the play on at the

Methodist Church. This was a modern take on an old yet still

relevant story with a marvellous cast.

JAKE EVES

For details of the play and how to obtain it, see: www.blueskiesvideo.co.uk