Natalie R. W. Eastman

Six Biblical Plays for Contemporary Audiences

Arts & Literature

“Entertaining, yet poignant. Funny, yet heartbreaking. Astonishing, yet delightful. Enraging, yet revealing. And now, let's talk about Dr. Robin Gallaher Branch's latest development: her book, Six Plays for Christian Audiences; prior to that, I was referring to the Bible. Dr. Branch captures all of these experiences and emotions we engage - or perhaps should engage - as we read through the Bible in a way few other means can: by the use of dramatic theater. Already a fan of her first book, Jeroboam's Wife, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of Six Plays, and it did not disappoint. Branch's careful, methodical scholarship underlays all her work and aims to excite all her readers' senses. She brings them as close as they can get, through both scholarship and imagination, to the flesh-and-blood (-and-spirit) reality of life in Old Testament times. Further, Dr. Branch aims to give those who read her books or receive her plays a deeper appreciation for the multifaceted cultural and historical elements of what biblical narrators assumed, but to which we are not necessarily privy. Yet, she also gently but boldly helps us consider the theological implications, whether glorious, comforting, or disturbing, beyond what may be obvious at first glance of the texts. At once entertaining, instructive, and illuminating, Six Plays will benefit individual readers, classes, and groups from young to old, and congregations through reading, performing, or viewing these plays. They, along with their attending questions for discussion, are simple enough for young viewers and participants and new believers, yet nuanced enough to engage and challenge older and mature Christians.”