Paul

Howard Brenton is one of those old leftie British playwrights -“ like David Hare, David Edgar and Caryl Churchill -“ who use the theatre as a forum to debate social ideas. Over three decades they’ve produced some great topical plays where conflicting arguments are embodied into the drama of real flesh and blood characters.

Brenton’s latest play, Paul, is in the same articulate British tradition. It’s about Saul who persecuted the early Christians until he was converted and became the religion’s vital first evangelist, St Paul.

The turning point, you might remember, was on the road to Damascus when he was blinded by the light of a resurrected Jesus. But did Saul see instead the real Jesus? Did Jesus survive his crucifixion?

Brenton shows him later recovering in Jerusalem hidden away with Peter and with his brother James and lustfully married to Mary Magdalene. They complain about mad idealists like Paul banging on their door, kissing their feet, certain that Jesus is not a dead man walking but a Christ risen. Brenton’s Jesus may be a fine reformer of Judaism but is no Son of God. His followers ridicule Paul for roaming the world preaching that in his name any gentile can get to heaven.

But a new religion needs to forge quickly its other-worldly mysteries, its resurrection, its rituals and its dangerous evangelists like Paul.

As Paul, Robert Menzies magnificently brings alive this possessed and sincere man who effectively carved a religious orthodoxy from the teachings of a mortal. Adam Gardnir’s set, evocatively lit in diagonals by Matt Scott, suggests a shattered cityscape that is both Judea 70 AD and Israel 2007 AD. And Wesley Enoch directs a cast comfortable with this artful reality spanning both times and worlds, and with the surprising humour in Brenton’s detective story.

Paula Arundell is robust as the earthy wife of Jesus and Steve Le Marquand is pragmatic, almost blokey, as Peter. He knew and loved Jesus but only at the end is he convinced by the never-doubting Paul of the divinity of Jesus.

 Before their martyrdom in Rome, the two are visited in their cell by the mad Caesar, Nero (Jonathan Hardy). He shares some curt observations about how to make a religion and a church that will last.

Paul is a witty and thoughtfully enriching play about the dangers and inspiration of faith, an important and imaginative play that rewards the politically minded theatregoer. I loved it.

Paul is now running at Belvoir Street Theatre, Surry Hills.