Sara and I are going to a play at the Fringe tomorrow called Can I Still Go To Heaven (If I Shoot the Music Minister?). It’s about a guy who takes a church hostage and will kill everyone there if they can’t prove the existance of God to him.
This sounded like a very interesting concept. Then we noticed that the theatre company putting it on is called: “CAMI – Christian Actors and Musicians International.” Also, the venue is a bapist church (or an evangelical church, depending on which day of the week, since it’s playing at two different venues).
We realized this before we paid for our tickets, but decided to risk it. It sounds like it could still be interesting, as long as it isn’t just an excuse for the churches in question to try and convince people that God is real. I’ll actually be OK with it being at least partially an excuse for that, as long as it is still a well-written and thought-provoking piece.
Are we going to be evangelized to for 90 minutes, or will it actually be an interesting play? Only time will tell, but I’m obviously hoping for the latter.
6 Comments
If you get evangelized for 90 minutes, a good antidote might be to see Call me a Liar. (https://tickets.fringetheatre.ca/dateselect.aspx?item=769&venue=10) I saw it on Saturday and found it highly entertaining. There’s even a song about Rahim Jaffer and Helena Guergis.
It did turn out to be an hour and a half of “Jesus is awesome!” On top of that, it was just not a very good production: poorly acted, poorly written, and poorly staged. If you’re into Christian EZ Rock, then the music is at least well done. But, over all, it was not enjoyable and definitely one to avoid.
I may check out Call Me a Liar if I can fit it into my Fringe schedule. Thanks for the suggestion.
Too bad you just didn’t get it, Adam. We had hundreds of folks who saw the play who did get it and loved it. They all thought it was extremely well written, wonderfully acted, and a must see. Hmmm… I wonder who to believe?
I got it; I just didn’t enjoy it. And that’s fine. I don’t doubt that many people did. I saw people in the audience who were very clearly digging the music. I saw people crying as I left the church after the show. Some people obviously found it quite powerful.
But, I stand by my comments. I didn’t find the acting particularly believable, with the exception of Meghan Koshman (she’s a good actor, and it didn’t hurt that Becky was the best written character). The staging was awkward—I felt like the raised stage area should have been taken advantage of, as it was sometimes difficult to see the action.
All of that said, I was clearly not the target audience, but I like to think that I went in with an open mind. In the end, it didn’t do anything for me. It clearly did work for others, but I guess I was hoping for a play that would present a more rigorous theological debate than I was given.
@Dan Bagan
First, I’d like to preface my comments by saying that I am a “born again Christian” from a Baptist background (one grandfather, two uncles, and a cousin are all Baptist ministers!) and that I think it’s wonderful that your play worked to bring a message of salvation to the predominantely God-less Fringe Festival.
I find you comments above discouraging, though. I understand that Adam gave you a fairly lousy review, and that sucks, but your reply is not only confrontational, it also implies there’s something wrong with Adam because he “didn’t get it.”
Perhaps a more graceful, Christ-like response could have been effected? After all, the play isn’t really “about” you…
@Bethany – Thanks for your comment. I apologize for not approving it sooner. I mistakenly thought that it was already live, rather than pending approval.
I’ve been thinking about this post a bit over the past few days and I feel that I should point out that my earlier comment of It did turn out to be an hour and a half of “Jesus is awesome!” may have come across as slagging Christianity, which was definitely not my intent. My intent was simply to point out that there was a definite lack of nuance and that the play had little purpose other than to proselytize.
Depending on your point of view, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, like I mentioned in my initial post (the review itself came in the comments section), I actually would have been totally OK with a piece of evangelical theatre as long as I felt that the production was better than what I ultimately saw.
Even though I didn’t find the hostage-taker’s conversion particularly convincing, the story actually had the potential to be entertaining. I just felt that it was not well executed. My review was harsh, I admit, but it was my honest impression of the play.