The kids said it was the best experience of church ever.  What an engaging, confronting, disturbing and moving way of getting people engaged with the text of the Bible.What was it?

Last weekend our family watched Mark’s gospel being performed live. That’s 90 minutes of raw, amateur theatre in a local high school hall. Each chapter of Mark’s gospel was fleshed out with zero props or sets as the audience watched the action unfold ‘in the round’. The only stage is a 2 metre square space at the centre of the spiral seating arrangement, so it creates a very intimate experience.

I could imagine professionals doing this and travelling the globe but how could you possibly transplant a production of this length into the lap of a local church? For the past couple of months people have been asking me if I was in the cast, but I couldn’t imagine how such a big project could be achievable without some serious workload.  Normally having a lot of creative control over the performances I do, I also thought it would be a tough one for me to fit into. Like, maybe I’d be a right nuisance rather than a valuable contributor.

Anyhoo, I’m so glad to say our prayers were answered and the performances were a triumph. We clearly have a great pool of talent in our church to draw from, not to forget a very passionate, dedicated producer pulling it all together. But what struck me most was how well ‘oiled’ the production is from a stage direction point of view. This is what you get when you ‘buy’ in the ‘Mark drama’ brand. They’ve done this many times before and the really hard part of stage direction and keeping the show tight is already worked out. Plus casting is greatly assisted through the Mark drama’s own director who apparently comes for rehearsals and show nights.  But get this…if you’re in the cast you don’t even know who you’re playing until 3 days before show time! Then for 2 nights and 1 day you rehearse like mad with the cast and director to bring it all together. Most cast have just learnt the order of events and are encouraged to ad lib. The only guy learning lines is Jesus.

I’m not sure every church could pull this off; despite the ‘inbuilt’ strengths of the ‘Mark Drama’ I reckon some churches just wouldn’t have enough talent to avoid cringe worthy performances. Plus you do need a ‘Jesus’ cast member who will need to learn lots of lines. Using a neutral venue was a great idea. Having an awesome spread of food afterword was another.

But what a great family event. Ok it’s not for young kids. But our youngest (9) really enjoyed it, though visibility was a bit of an issue due to the flat seating floor. It’s so good for us to be inside the ‘passion’ together. You are engaged, you can’t get bored, it moves at a cracking pace. Really it’s a testament to Mark’s own creative work. His gospel is such a racy, punchy story. Full credit. He’s really the guy who has given the ‘Mark Drama’ its pattern for success.  Plus it was a great event for our church family as it brought people across multiple congregations together and we could see each from opposite sides of the round. Imagine doing church in the round every week!? I like it.

There’s something about live theatre or performance that you just don’t get week to week in church. I’m not saying we should have live dramas every week or even once a month. Just saying what an easy thing to invite friends along to. One caveat though, I think you need some basic familiarity with the gospel story to be able to follow the Mark Drama and not be confused by all the rapid fire action. As the narrator is dispensed with, you rely on people to pick up the story’s shifts and turns by following the action. So I reckon some folk would be like those whisperers (me included) in spy movie audiences ‘what happened to that guy…I thought he was the other guy who got healed...’.

The kids said it was the best experience of church ever.  What an engaging, confronting, disturbing and moving way of getting people engaged with the text of the Bible. Everyone came away buzzing, talking about stuff they learnt that they hadn’t realised before and scenes that impacted them more than before. It reminds me a little of how people always come up to me ‘buzzing’ after an Anton’s Antics show. They’re just so stoked to be in church, to be hearing the word of God, to be feeling it. Live theatre can really pack a punch and I make sure Anton’s Antics’ shows are packed with entertainment and clear content nobody can miss. After all, the shows have to reach and hold kids ages 5 and up; so once you do that, you can reach anybody.

To find out more about the Mark Drama go here: http://themarkdrama.com/
To find out more about Anton’s Antics live shows, contact me through this website or email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.