SONGS AND SCRIPTS AND DUNKING BISCUITS

On December 14^th 2020 I posted a blog – only my seventh blog at the time – ruminating that Jesus seems to have less and less exposure at Christmas.

It was in large part inspired by a bulletin I wrote for a charity one mid-summer informing  all their shops that Christmas cards were being distributed to them in August. I joked in the bulletin how Santa was still probably still hanging around the bars of Magaluf.

This line was removed from the bulletin by the Communications team on the grounds that it may offend people of a ‘religious nature’.

I was staggered. Was it possible that the communications team who made the decision to cut the line had blurred the lines of reality between a fictional character called Santa Claus and the actual, real character of Jesus Christ?

The blog has received a couple of likes but inspired not a single comment.  However, that doesn’t mean I see it as a failure.

Based largely on the blog I recently decided to write a ten-minute comedy play centred around a marketing team commissioned with the task of reminding the general public that Christmas is actually about Jesus Christ, not Santa. The complication for the marketing company is that they also represent said Father Christmas.

The play, ‘Party Time for Jesus’, has been selected by the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool along with six other short plays to form part of their Stocking Fillers season, and will run almost every day from the 5^th to the 29^th December.

Each of the plays will have Christmas as it’s core theme and will have a maximum of four characters. The cast is exciting and talented, (from left, Elliot Kingsley, Joe McGann, Tasha Dowd and Lynne Francis), a mix of young talent who have already starred in some big theatre productions , and established actors. One of these is Joe McGann, part of the McGann acting dynasty of brothers who have significant credits in British theatre, television and film.

Currently we are most of the way through rehearsals which are going well, confidence is high they will be well received. Ticket sales are also going well.

So there you go  – if you write a blog that not many people read, just make it into a stage play!