Review: Stratford Festival's THE KING JAMES BIBLE PLAY is Captivating

The World Premiere of Playwright Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s THE KING JAMES BIBLE PLAY recently opened at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. Directed by Nina Lee Aquino, this exciting new play imagines the process of a group of male scholars in the 1600’s translating the King James Bible, as well as the process of a group of female Artists in the present day, in turn imagining the aforementioned process of translating the King James Bible. As one character states in the play, “History has as much to do with imagination as anything else” and this play explores how our imaginations and our personal experiences inevitably bleed into how we interpret the world around us, including our work.

This story explores how writers and performers bring themselves into everything they do – even if they are interpreting someone else’s words. A group of very different people, with different belief systems, relationships, and personal experiences, coming together to create one thing is always going to be an interesting process. This play does well to explore vastly different perspectives across centuries, but it also does well to explore parallels and commonalities within the human experience.

With half the company primarily in Act 1 and the other half in Act 2, each performer in this excellent ensemble has the opportunity to shine. Cyrus Lane and Deborah Hay each offer heartbreaking moments that echo one another, as Sir Henry Savile and Marti (the director of the play within the play) respectively. Vivien Endicott-Douglas gives a standout performance as Han, Marti’s daughter, who is a last minute recruit for her mother’s play and who comes armed with a chip on her shoulder, a complicated history with her mother, and a strong and complex point of view on God and the Bible.

Adding even more of a 'meta' to the play within a play is the way Act 2, play pokes fun at Artists and their process, especially those who have done more learning than doing, like Angel Lo's Anna who is just out of theatre school. Lo is at the centre of several of the biggest laughs.

This is the only production mounted in the Stratford Festival’s intimate Studio Theatre this season and the space is perfect for this story, allowing the audience to feel like they are right in the room for both creative processes – hundreds of years apart. Robin Fisher's Set Design and Michelle Ramsay's Lighting do wonders to immediately bring us into the world of the translators of the King James Bible and then with only slight adjustments, allow us to step back and see the space as the set in a modern theatre.

This exciting new piece of theatre is a welcome addition to what has proven to be an excellent season at the Stratford Festival.

THE KING JAMES BIBLE PLAY continues in Repertory at the Studio Theatre until September 26th.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Don't Miss a Toronto News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...