Recently was doing some lectures under the title of Preaching as Theatres. Building upon my research interests into preaching 'as performance', for these lectures I decided to engage directly with the work of experimental British theatre director Peter Brook in his older but nevertheless still significant and influential book The Empty Space.
In this work Brook identifies a number of causes/features of what he describes as 'deadly theatre' and I suggest that these can also be applied to that which can create 'deadly preaching', other peoples of course! Some of these features are:
dwindling audiences
dullness elevated as quality because if it is dull it must somehow be worthy
the pressure of economics on performers, theatres, and expectations
unengaged audiences
a failure of performers, specifically those over the age of 30, either to develop their skills or equally as critically to develop themselves as human beings
the constraint on performances of established conventions and contexts
an overemphasis on the few exceptional examples that do exist
inadequate preparation
the failure of performers to be inspired or inspiring by rising to the challenges of their own age
a failure for performers to understand the nature of their means of expression
a retreat to old formulae, old methods, old jokes, old effects in order to regain an earlier liveliness
performances that fail to elevate, instruct, or even entertain
When Brook critiques ‘deadly’ theatre he does so as one who loves the theatre but who sees what it could be. In a quirky little quote he writes:
‘The problem of Deadly Theatre is like the problem of the deadly bore. Every deadly bore has head, heart, arms, legs; usually, he has a family and friends; he even has his admirers. Yet we sigh when we come across him – and in this sigh we are regretting that somehow he is at the bottom instead of the top of his possibilities. When we say deadly, we never mean dead: we mean something depressingly active, but for this reason capable of change’.
gosh...that list sums up church and preaching sometimes!
Posted by: Margaret | May 26, 2010 at 01:32 PM
In today's society we have so many ways of communication open to us, yet so few are used in churches, let alone in a sermon! We have so much to compete with in the secular world yet don't seem ready to rise to the challenge! When will we, as the church wake up?!
Posted by: Clare Atkin38 | August 06, 2010 at 08:56 AM