Theatre / Reviews
Review: When the Morning Stars Sang (& The Angels Shouted for Joy), Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘A poised performance, but a limited interrogation of ideas’’
Yesterday evening saw Tobacco Factory Theatres play host to an evening of storytelling accompanied by cello. When The Morning Stars Sang (& The Angels Shouted For Joy) features Hugh Lupton reciting ancient tales from the three great monotheisms of the world, over well-timed music performed by cellist and singer Sarah Moody.
The interaction between myth and truth makes for rich artistic soil. Myths invite us to ponder the meaning and location of truth. If you recount to a child a simple mythic story, the child will instinctively know its ending. Where this kind of fundamental knowledge is involved, it is quite difficult to state with any confidence that stories are any less true than actual life.
Because stories are the framework by which we perceive the world, the very rhythm and tempo of life, it is in some sense impossible to speak without telling one. Follow this thread far enough back, and it will lead where all real conversations eventually do: to the beginning.
Sarah Moody and Hugh Lupton – photo: courtesy of the artists
When The Morning Stars Sang (…) seeks to revivify and combine the foundational myths which constitute the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this respect, the production finds its psychological lineage in the work of Carl Jung, whose work as a kind of archaeologist of myth found him thinking more deeply and interestingly about the nature of truth in myth than perhaps anybody before or since.
We are told a handful of stories, which combine to colour a greater narrative whole. Lupton is a largely composed and poised performer, with a pleasant speaking voice. And in that pleasantness lies the show’s limitations. We remain largely at the superficial level, never quite managing to fully interrogate these profound ideas.
It’s worth remembering that these spiritual traditions do not reside solely in the imagined realm. Whatever your belief about the origins of religious ideas, they are at least mediated culturally. That is to say, these traditions are inseparable from the lived experience and traumas of peoples. It can be disquieting to see them somewhat casually mused upon by individuals not subject to that history.
When the Morning Stars Sang (& The Angels Shouted for Joy) is at Tobacco Factory Theatres on September 22-23 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com.
All photos: Hugh Lupton and Sarah Moody
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