I went to see a play tonight (a monologue, from the POV of a Catholic Brother teaching at a school in the 1950s) and there were two things in it that left me completely scratching my head. I hope somebody here can help me out.
The not-so-bizarre-one: At one point, the guy is talking about the Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemene and mentions in passing that this is “days and days” before the crucifixion.
Umm…say what? Every Bible I’ve ever looked at says that this happened withing 24 hours. Do Catholics believe something different than Protestants on this point, or was the writer of the play just being ignorant?
The really bizarre one: At the end of the play, the teacher is finishing up the school day by “saying the liturgy” before he lets his students out. While doing this, the following events occur:
He goes to his desk.
He takes out a pot of blue paint.
He starts painting a chair blue.
Lights fade to blackout.
I have no clue why he does this, or what it could possibly mean. Am I missing some sort of symbolism here? I swear, the play wasn’t being surreal until up to that point (it was bad, but it wasn’t wierd). Is there some particular Catholic context that I’m not getting?
IANAC, but what was the name of the play?
Regards,
Shodan
The Christian Brothers
I believe it was written by an Australian (it was set in Sydney) and I suspect it’s of very recent writing - therefore presumably nobody outside the country will ever have heard of it
It appears to be this play.
Reviewed here …and elsewhere.
From the review, I’m not sure that the chair painting has any particular Catholic meaning. Catholics have the same understanding of the timeline of events for the Passion as protestants…so I can’t address your first question.
Given the prominence of the events in the Garden of Gethsemane in both the Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday readings and liturgy, I have no idea where the playwright came up with “days and days.” (Was he deliberately pointing out the ignorance of the teacher?)
If there is some meaning in painting the chair blue, it would appear to be Australian in nature. I have no idea.
Neither example seems to have anything to do with Catholic doctrine, tradition or practice. Apparently both instances have something to do with whatever’s going on in the play, the author using literary license to make a point.
However, in the case of the event timeline of Gethsemane, he may be quoting instead non-canonical sources – certainly neither the Gospels nor the Magisterium say that. For instance he may be quoting an unidentified theologian’s treatise. Some writers of religion-based fiction (and theatre IS fiction) seem quite prone to presenting a particular “alternative interpretations” w/o proper attribution, as if that were “it” and “everybody knows that”.