On Theatre

‘Gus: How’d that feel, doing a sermon as a skit, acting it out?

Chris: Fine. I did okay, and the actress did great.

‘Gus: I didn’t ask about the performance, but about how it felt?

Chris: Good… what are you getting at?

‘Gus: Having those two things together—theatre and liturgy... I’d never dreamed of doing such a thing. It seems innately sinful.

Chris: Really?

‘Gus: Yeah, after all, theatre is a form a liturgy, there are set lines, they shape the audience in certain ways, move them emotionally. Really it forms a certain type of faith.

Chris: There might be something to that. After saying my set lines in the skit/sermon I led everyone in confessing the Apostle’s creed, then my Deacon said particular prayers paired with particular responses…

‘Gus: Indeed. That’s why theatre scares me.

Chris: Well, ‘Gus, theatre has fallen on hard times, the few who show up now are kinda old, there are a bunch of empty seats. The theatre I go to can’t even give away its tickets to students. It’s not a popular thing, well, other than Hamilton.

‘Gus: Huh, much like the average mainline church.

Chris: Ouch.

‘Gus: Yet, I think there is a hearth religion that has sprung up in this age. Those TV’s, they make you invest in characters, their stories. Don’t you wonder about this Walking Dead thing you watch, on a Sunday night… religiously you could say. Isn’t there an almost sacramental quality to it? In fact, after you experience the terror, or triumph, or whatever, of the characters for an hour, then there is Pastoral Care in the form of Talking Dead. Just as you talk through the faith expressed in worship in pastoral conversations after service, so too, Chris Hardwick ministers to those who participate in this TV-Hearth religion.

Chris: So, you think I’m a syncretist?

‘Gus: We’re all syncretists, but yes, I think there is an aspect of liturgy in TV, just as there was an aspect of liturgy in theatre in my age. I wonder, in what ways do the theologians of your day wrestle with this competing faith? At least acknowledging it for what it is, even if you decide that it is value neutral and not a threat to the gospel.

Chris: …