|
The result is inauthentic in documentary terms but filled with the arguments and atmosphere of its day in a way that makes it uncannilly relevant to our own time with its search for a spiritual identity during a time of moral uncertainty. The Seduction of Almighty
God is set during the dissolution of the monasteries, a critical moment
in the history of the English priesthood. The loss of faith and cynical
corruption that characterised the priests of this period is unexpectedly
challenged by the arrival of a young man with an unsullied and passionate
belief in God.
Barker's boy priest is a portrait of an adolescent empowered by his absolute belief in what he thinks he knows but pained to find it debased by cynical compromisers for whom faith is a convenient cloak for more selfish personal agendas.
'A welcome return to form for The Wrestling School… Seduction was directed
by French theatre director, Guillaume Dujardin, who recently directed
Howard's Brutopia to great acclaim in France. The production formed
part of an Anglo-French collaboration in which Howard directed his Animals
In Paradise in Rouen in March 2005 and two bi-lingual French actors
from that show joined The Wrestling School to create Seduction.
Director Guilliame Dujardin and the two French actors will brought a wealth
of experience and fresh ideas to the interpretation and realisation of
Howard Barker's work from their highly successful work on Howard's plays
in France. Seduction toured to Birmingham, Poole, Colchester and London Riverside Studios.
Supported by Arts Council England
|
|||
|
|
The
Seduction Of Almighty God
This disturbing Howard Barker play characteristically uses re-imagined
events ostensibly set in a historical context to explore the human experience
of a major moral issue with a powerful contemporary resonance. 
Taken
in by a pitying abbot, the boy Loftus gradually acquires a huge moral
ascendancy over the few priests left in the Abbey of Calcetto through
the intensity and purity of his faith. With mounting alarm they discover
that he possesses the power of life and death over others. This power
enables Loftus to rid the abbey of government agents who pester it but
gradually it corrupts him. 
Powerful
poetic language builds a fast moving and unpredictable tale of extreme
religious conviction, moral decay, savage revenge, sexuality and death.
Howard Barker invents a world of shocking and universal metaphor in a
place that might be anywhere struggling with the rise of extreme belief
and the dangerous distorted power it unleashes.