My ‘Public’ View:
(Rated 4/5 )
I calculated that given this 'show' ran for just 3 hours with a new 'performance' every 5 mins and each of those to just 6 people - then only 216 people would get to attend. I felt incredibly privileged to be one of those people in such a beautiful and exciting, historical building lending itself to be a theatre for a show 'starring' arguably the most important book of all time in the setting where it was 'reborn' and where of course so many other extraordinary and exciting historical events have taken place.
It did indeed feel very special to be there after the abbey is usually closed and to be taken to places in the abbey which so few people get to see. And to be amongst the souls - if you like - of so many awe-inspiring, talented, famous and infamous people, who have passed through before, who are buried there or who are celebrated with memorial plaques.
We arrived early and it all felt so personal straight away as I gave my name and was later organised into my little group of six by being called by my first name. It was a little bit like a game of musical chairs except all in whispered instructions so that we didn't disturb the performances in action at the time.
When our time came we were taken to meet our guide - an actor - who would lead us through our whole journey through the abbey. Right from the outset we were encouraged to stand close and this incredible intimate experience began! On our little journey - if only it had been longer than 40 minutes - we had various stopping points where we were told some history of that particular area of the abbey and had aspects of the building, statues, tombs etc pointed out. And at each 'stop' we were also treated to a reading from the bible, in 3 cases by our own guide, whilst in others by another actor whom we encountered on our journey waiting patiently, silently at the stop. At the appropriate time, after the little story/ies associated with that part of the abbey had been related by our guide, the waiting actor would open their script and 'perform' their assigned reading. I won't name names but some had more impact than others on me depending on how well they read, how much feeling they put into it, how connected I felt with the perfomer via their eye contact or way of conveying the reading in their voice or slight body movements. In each case we were standing so close to them - maybe just a couple of steps away - that I imagined all of us felt we were having the words spoken just for us. It was such a beautiful, intimate, inclusive, open, connected experience. Naturally the words of each passage in themselves had an impact but for me it was the way they were performed that struck me most. On finishing the reading each actor paused, closed their script, some smiled and we thanked them and they us with a return thank you or inclination of their head or a smile. It was so lovely!
The following were the stops and accompanying readings from the Bible (taken from the 'In The Beginning' souvenir programme):-
High Altar: Revelation 1: 4-18
Quire Screen: Genesis 1: 1-19
The tombs of Newton and Darwin
Unknown Warrior: John 15: 1-14
Amnesty Candle: Micah 6: 1-8
Wilberforce Memorial: Exodus 9: 1-13
Chapel of St John the Baptist: Song of Solomon 2
Edward the Confessor's Tomb: Proverbs 16: 10-24
The Lady Chapel: Luke 8: 40-56
Chapter House: Job 3 and Job 38
Such a brilliant and original way of celebrating two precious 'monuments' of history! Forty-minutes in time I will always treasure.
My ‘Personal’ Experience:
(Rated 4.5/5)
You all know me well enough to know that the very mention of Christopher Eccleston appearing in anything sends me frantically to the internet or telephone to book my ticket to whatever it is and then to get transport to wherever it is come hell or high water! (Haven’t yet sussed out what my geographical limit would be on that or if I have one ;).) And this occasion was almost no exception to that. I say almost because there was much confusion amongst the ‘Ecclesnuts’ – as many of his fans term themselves - as to whether going to this event would be a guarantee that you’d see him perform. Somebody ‘starring’ in a show usually means that all audience members get to see them – unless sadly they damage their backs like David Tennant managed during Hamlet and Love’s Labours Lost for the RSC so missing enough performances in London for him NOT to get nominated for any of the theatrical awards that year – criminal in my humble opinion. Given that each group was being lead around by one of ‘the country's most exciting established or emerging actors’ that would indicate that you wouldn’t be lead round by the others leading other groups – and the readings by an ensemble of performers – would he be amongst those or not?!
Plus I had a pre-arranged ‘date’ with Jonny Lee Miller as The Creature and Beneditch Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein at a screening of the National Theatre’s Frankenstein directed by Danny Boyle that same night – another NTLive event. Following excellent public reviews – and a personal one from one of you who knows who they are ;)! – I was very keen to see that. So would I deprive myself from seeing the superbly sensitive, intelligent and interesting interpretation of Frankenstein’s Creature by Jonny or take a risk that I MIGHT get to see Christopher read a bit of the bible to me or even better guide me round Westminster Abbey?!
Okay yes I took the risk on YKW!! BUT I was also highly fortunate that the NT screening was getting repeated on the Saturday and so I got to see it with the very person who has personally recommended it to me. Fantastic! Jonny’s performance was well worth it and Benedict did a great job too though the rest was a bit bland somehow. Anyways…
I arrived at Westminster Abbey several hours – well in fact 4 – early as is my way with these things if I can, giving myself time to suss out where things are and how things work and can I make sure I find my way to all the necessary points – without guidance – for the evening – also giving in to that fear I have of being late so I make sure I’m very early! That said was also meeting a friend in advance – again you know who you are ;) – to have something to eat and catch up before the ‘show’ – so was giving ourselves a good 2 hours for that – and then plenty of time to get back to Abbey so that we’d be there extra early just in case!
So how did the finding things go? Well I’d printed out google map instructions for the necessary journeys – Westminster
Time passed…
Had a lovely meal but I couldn’t eat very much – ‘Ecclesangst’ had started to hit – and I was also starting to struggle to be fully present.
We got back to the Abbey and you already know part of the story now from my ‘public’ view.
So I will now tell you the parts that feel far more personal to me J
Our group’s guide was a young lady called Morven Christe:
I liked her as a guide and as a person. She was a sweetie - played her role well - was considerate - enthusiastic - knowledgeable beyond the text she had in her arms and she created interest and enjoyment. Not that what we were seeing and hearing wasn’t those things in any case but she added to it for me. I believed her! One of the crucial aspects for a performance to work J
Incidentally the text I refer to was the ‘play’ as written by Nick Payne with extracts from the KJV. We were given a copy at the end, which was a good job given my increasing lack of presence due to pain – legs really struggled even with use of stick etc – and anxiety/excitement about whether Christopher would appear at each next ‘stop’ – the longer it went on the harder it was for me to go on but I did and I’m so pleased I did! Morven did ask me a few times if I was okay and if she could help me up stairs etc. I replied I was fine with the banisters and then had friend help me at points when there weren’t any! It’s funny – as many of you know I am usually kind of anxious before a performance – I get nervous for the actors as well as myself in a strange way! – but usually I know I’ll be fine as I’m sitting in a theatre seat and all I have to do is watch and listen. This was very different!
Back to the text – it contained the history and stories associated with each stop we had and then the carefully selected – by The Revd Dr James Hawkey – readings from the Bible.
We started at The High Altar where all sovereigns since 1066 have been crowned and in front of which is the Cosmati pavement, on which is depicted the entire history of the Universe including its date of demise – happily maybe that has eroded away! We had to be very careful to stand on the top stair up to the altar but not on the pavement itself and I was a little anxious I might fall backwards – not trusting my balance these days! Morven read the first reading to us; Revelation 1:4-18.
Michelle Terry’s reading from John 15: 1-14 by the tomb of the unknown soldier was watery-eye inducing. Sharon Small’s sparkling reading of the title piece from Genesis matched The Quire Screen, with its little archway with stars on the ceiling.
We had Andrew Woodall by the tombs of Newton and Darwin Newton
Building towards my personal highlight of the night we had Morven and Nonso Anozie perform Job 3 and Job 38 with Morven as Job and Nonso as the LORD! For me kind of a sexy, scary God! This performance was in the Chapter House, billed as one of the most ‘acoustically rousing and thrilling locations’ in the whole abbey. It certainly was and we experienced their voices echo all around us in the deliverence of such powerful verse on humanity and complexity and why we suffer. Highly memorable! Nonso’s voice and himself – so much so that I recognised him on the tube two days later – I think I looked at him a little too long in making sure it was him – he turned away! Hope I didn’t scare him back!
Somewhere along the tour we had to wait a while as the group in front had not finished. At the time we were near many memorial plaques, including one to Jane Austen amongst many, many other well-knowns. Another guide teased Morven about Austen being her favourite author. At the time I didn’t realise why but googling her afterwards she played Jane Bennet in Lost in Austen.
In the Lady Chapel we heard another beautiful reading from Luke’s Gospel about Jesus’ compassion for women. Unfortunately I am not sure who read that! May have been Emmy Sainsbury or Miranda Raison. Very lovely in any case!
And then in the Chapel of St John the Baptist Tamsin Greig was the performer patiently waiting for us. She told us she was going to read us a love poem and that she wouldn’t make eye contact. I think the latter was a joke – and perhaps aimed at the men in our group. During her excellent, emotive and expressive reading of Song of Solomon 2 I kept my eyes on her and we had several moments of eye contact with kind of a cheeky glint in those eyes at points! I really enjoyed her reading and felt very connected to the words and to her.
And so on we went past tombs of monarchs such as Henry V and Edward The Confessor, and many different chapels all decorated differently and all awe inspiring in their own ways. And the incredible magnificence of the whole building! It felt marvelous to be in there… and at times pretty cold too!
We were almost at the end of the tour… I was still hopeful that maybe HE would be the climax…
Morven took us into the Jerusalem Chamber, where the final edit of the King James Bible took place and in which a group of fifty or more scholars assembled and read their whole bible aloud from start to finish before its publication.
As she was telling us this we thought we heard the voice of a man outside the door…
Morven read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 to us:
“ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…”
…and that was the end of the tour…
Not my season for Christopher Eccleston on this occasion and not the time to fulfill my next purpose with him! ;) ;)
The End of the Word.
Afterword: I am extremely pleased that a desire to experience an intimate performance by my favourite actor – oh my goodness the eye contact! - lead me to this extraordinary theatrical endeavour and even though I was in physical agony afterwards - so much that I could hardly walk back to mine - and was experiencing disappointment, I was blown away by a kind of spiritual power and exchange with those performers and the words of that text in that abbey that - even though I don’t believe in the Christian God as such - felt like a celebration of what I consider as my God of deep, connected, expressive humanity and theatrical performance!
In The Beginning – Review by The Restricted Reviewer © 2011
Twitter: @RestrictReview
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