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Christian Theology Vs. Theatre

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As a minister, worship leader, and actor, I’ve constantly had to balance these roles. Either in a church environment or in a theatrical environment. Christian theology and theatre have never intersected for me. I’ve always kept each role separate in its own category. I felt each role was different enough that they would never cross over into each other’s world. Or maybe, they have crossed over and I just did not realize the connection. I never thought that the roles had any similarities. After taking this class, I’ve learned differently. According to Johnson & Savidge, there is a “symbiotic connection between theatre and Christianity; they are not just similar; rather they share major commonalities at the core of their existence.…show more content…
As the psychiatrist encounter the boy’s imaginary world, his own life is exposed as passionless and frozen. The play then tells the story of a boy, who because of his repressed sexuality, his religious mother and his hypocrite father, makes his own religion based on horses, the bible, and sex. The psychiatrist, who is not able to imagine anything like that, who has lost his passion for his wife and who walks around carrying an unfulfilled dream about passion, ends up envying the boy the ability to create and believe in a religion.” The beginning state of Equus opens with the two main characters. First, there’s Alan, a mentally disturbed 17-year-old young man who has had done a horrible crime. Second, Dr. Dysart, Alan’s psychiatrist, a complacent man who questions his profession and his relationship with his wife. The end state of these characters closes the scene; Alan getting the professional help he needs and Dr. Dysart was willing to take a look at pursuing his dreams. There are several themes we can consider that the play depicts; such as freedom, growth and development, God and religion. One of those themes I like to consider from the play is God and religion. Although, this play does speak to the audience from the perspective of a theological context. The audience may not initially see the play from that perspective. The story strongly points to Alan, his relationship to Jesus Christ, to his
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