Some news for Easter. Robert Siegel of NPR (whom I’ve regularly criticized for being culturally-bound) stepped outside his comfort zone to do an excellent interview of the Irish actress Fiona Shaw, who is in New York to play Jesus’s mom in “The Testament of Mary,” a stage adaptation of Colm Toibin’s novella.
I was critical of one aspect of the interview. Shaw explained that Toibin had “diverted” the story from the Gospels to emphasize the political dimension of the story, Jesus’s martyrdom in a revolutionary cause:
fundamentally, it’s a story of a mother whose son, of course, heads to terrible destruction and… in that way, it’s very like many modern women who may be the mothers of soldiers or the mothers of, you know, revolutionaries. It’s there, really, is where the connection lies, I think.
The political angle came up again later. Note this exchange:
SIEGEL: I wonder, Fiona Shaw, if you could read to us a part of “The Testament of Mary.” What – and you can describe to us what part you read.
SHAW:… [On Good Friday] her cousin or so-called cousin who’s a sort of betraying character called Marcus comes to tell her the bad news about her son’s fate. And this is the section.
(Reading) Where is my son? Close to Jerusalem. The site for the crucifixion has been chosen. It will be near the city. I had seen a crucifixion once carried out by the Romans on one of their own. It stayed with me, the sight in the distance, the unspeakable image, the vast fierce cruelty of it. But I did not know precisely how the victim died or how long it took. I found myself asking Marcus how long a crucifixion takes as if it was something ordinary. He replied, days maybe, but sometimes hours. It depends. On what? Don’t ask, he said. It’s better if you don’t ask.
SIEGEL: Perhaps it’s just the accent, but I can’t help but think of some IRA leader who’s…
(LAUGHTER)
SIEGEL: …been turned in by his mother’s cousin who knows he’s working with the RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary], you know?
SHAW: I think it’s – you’re right and probably, you know, further afield than that. In the English-speaking world, that’s right. And I think that perhaps also it goes towards the Middle East. But there’s also something very unsentimental about the relationship of that mother and son, which is a very, I think, Colm catches that from Ireland, and the complexity of the bond pitting the mother and son is not in any way about being fooled by the son. The bond is just fundamental DNA, blood, bone, love. You know, it’s real deep, deep love.
SIEGEL: You’re alone on stage throughout this.
SHAW: I am, sadly…
You see, Shaw’s very interesting point about the Middle East goes unexplored. I wonder whether she sees Jesus in some of the Palestinian nonviolent resisters? I wonder how she sees Northern Ireland’s struggle against England as reflected in the Palestinian conflict. For me this is a story about empire. Washington, D.C., is the capital of empire. Journalists who prosper there must study the ways of court. And so a renegade political angle so resonant to people round the world just… lies there.
It’s like a British journalist interviewing George Bernard Shaw during the rebellions in Ireland. Why would he want to delve into one of the main foreign policy issues for Britain in his time in a literary interview with an Irishman?
I think any attempted or successful work of art that tries to put a human face on any religious or political icon is something to appreciate. It brings folks back down to reality.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-03-27/theater/spring-arts-guide-the-testament-of-mary-quite-contrary/full/
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/03-2013/on-first-preview-night-protesters-rally-outside-br_64711.html
“There is, of course, a tragedy in this woman’s life. This tragedy, as she says in the story, was never written because nobody’s interested in her story. But it is a tragedy. She brought this boy up and he became incredibly famous and not someone she recognized, [which is] very hard for any mother. And it happens all the time to lots of mothers.” http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/03-2013/the-testament-of-fiona-shaw-and-colm-toibin_64599.html Phil, does this tap you?
“”She’s very little in the New Testament, you know; she hardly ever speaks, twice or three times. So they’ve definitely kept her in a background role. And Colm seems to have thrown a spotlight on her and sort of filled in, in a way, and he’s diverted a bit from the Testament of the Apostles. But he has moved [the focus] fundamentally; it’s a story of a mother whose son heads to terrible destruction, and her having to witness the destruction of her son — which is very painful, and in that way it’s very like many modern women who may be the mothers of soldiers, or the mothers of revolutionaries. It’s [there] really, I think, where the connection lies.” http://www.npr.org/2013/03/29/175685701/testament-of-mary-a-familiar-mother-in-first-person
“Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you, and with your spirit, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus….”
Try imagining any biblical player as a normal human like yourself? What do you get? A very helpful exercise, both in terms of reality, and in terms of what any religion and/or ideology leave out. Let’s not support the morons who need something to pray to, in one way or another. Because the result is not good for humanity.
So, Phil, Fiona Shaw plays Mary in a play based on Colm Toibin’s novella. She likens Jesus to a Middle East revolutionary, but jewish interviewer Robert Siegel doesn’t pursue the angle, and neither does NPR. Yes, this has been observed:
Fiona Shaw says Jesus’s martyrdom has resonance in Middle East (but NPR doesn’t explore that) http://ewallstreeter.com/fiona-shaw-says-jesus-s-martyrdom-has-resonance-in-middle-east-but-npr-doesn-t-explore-that-9416/#ixzz2PFM0HepS
The political angle on the story of Jesus rivals the abstract religious one. Nietzsche, anyone? Religious folks have always tried to paper over the fact that that is the human aspect of any biblical character with any semblance of being a human being. For example, There’s Job, and Mary. Maybe this is the point of this play? Can’t wait for your response. Don’t forget the drop of wine at Passover, and the nature of Barrabbas as both a common criminal and a zealot rebel against Rome.
She’s (Mary) very little in the New Testament, you know; she hardly ever speaks
That is because the cult of Mary began in medieaval Europe during a time that the Pagans who were targeted for conversion were keeping their own deities. These people were so primitive they worshiped goddesses. Christianity, as with the other Abramic religions, the prophets and deities were all male. Thus it became necessary to comb the New Testament for some obscure female figure to promote to a gods-head so it could be sold to the new flock.
Besides putting up an outpost on the West Bank to protest the theft of their land, marching against the Wall to resist oppression, and hunger striking to protest illegal detention; I have an idea for the Palestinian resistance: build a bunch of wood crosses, tie members of the resistance, men and women to those crosses and mount them in a row on another outpost atop the West Bank for the world to witness Palestinian suffering and then have everyone watch while Zionists attempt to take them down to prevent the image from going viral.
Seriously, Jesus was tortured and died a slow agonizing death on the cross to benefit ALL humanity, not just Christians, and that image that will forever haunt the region and the entire world is seared in people’s minds. Could there be a more profound statement than to use this symbolism that everyone identifies with human suffering to call attention to the long-suffering Palestinians and their struggle to be free? I’m sure Jesus won’t mind if Palestinians borrow the symbolism for compassionate instruction to help free their brothers and sisters from the bondage that everyone ignores. Hey, Madonna wasn’t struck down by lightening for exploiting it for profanity’s sake? The worst that can happen is that it won’t move anyone; only I doubt it…
But who knows, maybe the symbolism will even reach Pope Francis and then it might even ignite a global effort to end the Palestinians’ suffering without further delay.