The Prodigal Son
by Benjamin Britten
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- Director
- Kirsten Z Cairns
- Music Director
- Edward Elwyn Jones
- Featuring
- Omar Najmi
- Aaron Engebreth
- David McFerrin
- Matthew DiBattista
- Thomas Oesterling
- Paul Soper
- Daniel Fridley
- Lighting Design
- Paul Marr
- Media Design
- Peter A Torpey
- Costume Design
- Rebecca Butler
Performed , The Cathedral Church of St Paul 138 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02111 .
Synopsis
Our troupe of travelling players are back; once again, they arrive singing as they come. What story will they share with us this time? Their leader surprises them by appearing already in character; he is the Tempter, who promises to show us a righteous but complacent family. They will be easy targets, he claims, for division and destruction.
The troupe transform themselves into characters. The Father surveys his peaceful home, surrounded by his two sons and his extended family and workers. Their prosperity is the result of toil and diligence, he reminds them all; and his Elder Son dutifully heads off to work in the fields, followed by the other men.
The Younger Son is reluctant to join them; he yearns for a different kind of life, and is encouraged by the Tempter to seek adventure. His Father agrees to his departure – and even gives him parts of his inheritance to take with him. His elder brother is angered by this decision; and the rest of the household are sad to see the Younger Son leave.
Life in the big city is not what our young hero had hoped for! The ‘friends’ he encounters corrupt him with bars, brothels, and gambling dens, and soon he has lost everything. Then a countrywide famine hits. At his lowest ebb, the Younger Son despairs; but remembering his Father’s love, he dares to venture home. He has no expectation of returning to a privileged life as cherished offspring; but perhaps, he hopes, his Father may allow him some lowly work on the estate.
The rest of the story you know, of course! It is Love which welcomes the erring son with open arms – and which we hope will welcome us all. The players leave us with a message, and a duty – remember forgiveness. Remember Love.
Programme Note
The parable of The Prodigal Son is perhaps one of the best known Bible stories. Sermons on this tale often ask us to reflect on how we identify with the sons. Are we, with the Elder Son, indignant at the Younger Son ‘getting away’ with his bad behaviour? Or do we realise that we all, in fact, go astray in our own ways – and so we all must hope to be forgiven? In pondering this story earlier this year, I was struck by one line in particular. The King James Version has it thus:
But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)
I suddenly wondered if perhaps we ought to identify not with either of the sons, but with the Father. What if we all found it within us to see, while they are ‘yet a great way off’, the needs of others; and what if we ran to them with compassion? I was reminded of a saying I read many years ago, the source of which is unknown to me:
A friend should be as blood, rushing to a wound without waiting to be called.
Britten’s church parables all have morals and lessons to impart. Their religious messages are clear; my interest, however, is in what they may teach us if we are non-believers. If it is not about heaven or an after-life, what are the humanist lessons of these works? What can we learn that may enrich our earthly lives?
Last year, Curlew River showed us hope in the darkest times, from the compassion of those whom we meet on the way, as we make this journey from birth to death. The Prodigal Son seems to be telling us that we must be the ones to show that compassion to those around us. Help is not coming – unless we are the helpers.
The Father makes a mistake early on in this tale; it is not toil that keeps evil away, but love. We may be industrious, dutiful, prosperous – but as St Paul told the Corinthians,
If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
The Younger Son could so easily have been lost forever. Like many young people who make wrong choices, he could have disappeared into the faceless mass of homelessness, and never been heard from again. But the love his Father had shown him all his life drew him home. Love brought him out of death, to new life.
What could be a better goal in this life, than to show that kind of love to others? What a gift it would be, to have others know that they can turn to us in their bleakest moment; and there we will be, running to meet them.
KIRSTEN Z CAIRNS Artistic Director
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