Messiah and Vernon God Little AS Devised Drama F rom Biblical beginnings to Deep South endings: this year’s AS Theatre Studies groups took two familiar stories, Jesus’
and audible breaths expressionistically suggesting Jesus’ fear and pain as he was taken to be crucified. The atmosphere and effect was suitably unsettling, and was one that continued throughout the piece. We saw disparate, fragmented glimpses of Jesus’ rise and fall: starting at the end, on the cross, Jesus movingly laments his suffering as the chorus seamlessly switch between illustrating Berkoff’s brutally poetic language with slow, highly articulated mime and movement, to playing the grotesque and violent soldiers who callously mock and play dice for his possessions. Comic relief followed swiftly in a fantastic choreographed sequence, led by a wonderfully pompous Ed McNamara as Pontius Pilate, in which we saw him dictating to journalist- like scribes, literally rewriting history to suit himself. This was certainly a piece of extremes, as Berkoff would have wanted, swinging from comedy to darkest drama in a heartbeat. In one memorable moment we saw Jesus, at the height of his power, suave and swaggering, greeting his amusing groupie followers with autographs and a dashing smile
crucifixion and school shootings in Vernon God Little , and gave them a breathtaking physical-ensemble twist. Channelling their chosen extracts through the expressionistic style of the infamous British practitioner Steven Berkoff, both groups surprised, delighted, provoked and moved their rapt audience. First came Messiah , a piece of Berkoff’s own writing. Jarring music full of sharp discord filled our ears in the darkness; then a dim wash flooded the stage to reveal a burdened Jakob Hedberg, in the guise of Jesus, wrists bound, fearful, dragging himself toward the cross. The chorus came to life as he passed, intensely staring ahead, synchronised sharp
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