Original production at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford in January 1996 as part of the Fringe on TOP Festival. This was the first public performance of the play.
Cast List:
Father Peter Copley
Jesus Douglas Henshall
Tour Guide Victor Spinetti
In his directions, the playwright (Neville Boundy) has requested that the text be presented by two men, dressed in ordinary contemporary costume, reading from their scripts. They present but do not impersonate the Father and the Son. As they read, they try to understand with the audience how that relationship may have been worked out. The script for them has the inexorability and the possibility of prophecy.
Boundy says that he is mainly concerned with exploring how the humanity of the Son – while without sin - necessarily involves doubt, uncertainty, fear, mistakes, weariness and the possibility of failure.
Like medieval passion plays it contains a number of humorous and imagined incidents as the author follows the biblical example of exploring divine truths through storytelling.
The first rehearsed readings of the play were in 1994, Michael Maloney played Jesus, followed by Miark Drewry. In the 1995 readings Paul McGann played Jesus. Paul also made a recording of the play in May 1996.
Since 1996 there have been several productions of this play, other well known readers include actors Timothy and Samuel West.
The following link is a radio discussion from abc Australia re. a 2003 production of the play and includes excerpts from the script:
www.abc.net.au