T O R O N T O

The living word of the Gospel of John

BY MICHAEL SWAN
The Catholic Register
TORONTO
Friday, March 04, 2005

Think of a drama full of conflict between forces of darkness and light, between established authorities and a young renegade, between an occupying army and the occupied nation, between the liberty of love, forgiveness and reconciliation and the constraints of power, authority and the law. This vast, interlocking machinery of conflict carries Brad Sherrill and his audience through two-and-a-half hours of the most stripped bare, honest and elementary theatre imaginable as the actor presents The Gospel of John.

From the beginnings of theatre in the English language — medieval chancel dramas presented before the altars of gothic cathedrals — Gospels have always been the wellspring of English drama. Sherrill knows it’s great theatre, but can’t think of it as just a play.

“I don’t look at this as a performance. I have performance skills that God has given me, but I really look at this as a proclamation,” Sherrill told The Catholic Register during a Toronto visit to perform his play.

The trouble with churchy words like “proclamation” is that it puts what Sherrill does in a straightjacket. Sherrill’s proclamation is nothing like the average Sunday morning Scripture reading. From a simple stage with a desk, a chair, a lamp, a stool, a jug of water and a basin, Sherrill uses the 20,000 words of the fourth Gospel to connect imaginations with Christ.

“My prayer is that each time this (Gospel) is released into the world, whether it’s me saying it or somebody else saying it in our churches, that we get that, and we can become more Christ-like by becoming more forgiving and more merciful and more loving,” said Sherrill.

Sherrill prays twice each evening as he performs The Gospel of John. He prays while sitting anonymously in the audience, and then again as soon as he takes the stage in a voice pitched below the audience’s ability to pick out words. Then, from the moment he looks up and addresses his audience, the words are not his.

“The thing I hear the most is, ‘You bring the Gospel to life.’ My answer is, ‘It is alive. I’m trying to let that life live through me,’ ” said Sherrill.

Part of the reason it works is that people aren’t used to confronting the whole Gospel, all at once, as a single entity. Most Christians either study the Bible as a series of discrete passages each with its own source, literary form and intended audience, or they take in the selected readings for liturgies.

“To be able to sit and hear a whole Gospel, the structure of it and the power of it, really builds and builds for us,” said Sherrill.

Sherrill has done The Gospel of John in New York’s historic Lamb’s Theatre, and theatres in Washington and Atlanta. He’s had positive reviews from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Washington Post, and a lukewarm notice from the New York Times who praised Sherrill’s acting but quibbled with the script.

Over the last four years, the performance has also taken him to churches and schools throughout the United States. The Atlanta-based actor, who is artistic associate with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, never thought he would be touring with a Gospel.

“I was called to learn the Gospel as a Christian, to deepen my relationship with Christ,” he said. “That’s why. God asked me, Brad — and I ignored this call for a while. But it would not leave my mind or my heart that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to go out on my front porch and devote the time to take these words inside of me as a way of deepening my relationship. God was saying, ‘I’ve given you these gifts as an actor. You’re used to memorizing things. Come closer to me by memorizing this.’ ”

He thought he would perform the Gospel once at his First United Methodist church in Atlanta.

“I surrendered the work to His will and His glory.”

A statement like that may sound as phony, trite and calculating as anything launched by the worst of televangelists, but there’s nothing hokey about Sherrill’s honest presentation of the text on stage. Nor is Sherrill a naive, Bible-belt evangelist using his fantastic memory to pound the Bible into unbelievers.

“I was certainly aware that the Gospel has been used throughout time to persecute women, Jews, blacks, you name it. You’re always aware of this. You just pray that the Spirit will speak to people in a clear way,” said Sherrill.

Sherrill struggled with the anti-Jewish slant of John’s version of the passion, but concluded he had to entrust the interpretation of the words in their historical and literary context to his audience. His job is limited to presenting the words as drama.

“Even though there’s great conflict between religious authorities who happen to be Jewish, and a man who happens to be Jewish — even though there’s great conflict — the overriding message of that Gospel is eternal salvation and love, forgiveness.”

Sherrill has made no decisions about how long he will continue to tour with The Gospel of John.

“My actor friends have said, ‘Aren’t you tired of doing that yet?’ I say, ‘No.’ This isn’t like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This isn’t like As You Like It, or other great plays that I’ve been in,” he said. “This to me is a living word. It is alive. Therefore it is a constantly evolving thing within myself, within a lot of people who hear it.”

The whispered prayer Sherrill makes at the beginning of each show reflects his conviction about the words he has memorized, “that this text tonight will be glorifying to God, and that the Word may make new wine skins of us every time we hear it.”

The Gospel of John plays at the Walmer Centre Theatre, 188 Lowther St., a block north of the Spadina subway stop, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and twice on Saturdays until March 27. Ticket information can be found at http://www.brookstonetheatre.com.