These writings from various moments along the way of the 4 Mysteries Project tell something of its evolution from 2001 to 2014. Things have changed – from translating two gospels to the development of story frameworks and scripts and much more – and will continue to change. The project has come quite a way.

Body Lines – A War Story | Introduction

‘The story isn’t set in a naturalistic world, but in a mythic world that introduces us to the unfamiliar and uncanny. Naturalism might work with the “story-of-Jesus” approach or the “yesterday’s news story” approach to the gospels, but a mythic take on Mark’s gospel – mythic in unexpected ways – demands a more stylised, symbolic performance. A more physical theatre approach.’

Love’s Body Rising | Introduction

‘Transformation provides the framework and the focus for John’s Gospel. Jesus is transformed and we see from what to what. An audience is part of this transformation. In its re-creation of a new body it’s a story of transformation quite unlike the ones we’re used to e.g. A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The Incredible Hulk etc.’

Making a Performance, a Story, a Body: Performing the Gospels

‘You might ask “why perform them?” It’s the question implicit in many comments about the work of the project. It’s a question of whether performance opens up different ways of responding to the gospel – there’s such a limited range of response – and if it doesn’t, forget it.’

‘The Gospel Accounts as Creation Stories’: A Conversation

‘- for example, a frame that works for the Mark gospel is taking it as a war story, a guerrilla struggle to liberate people from the grip of evil
– and you have to test that framework, to ensure that it’s not reductive but productive for our hold on the material and the gospel
– bearing in mind, you don’t have to include everything that’s in the account ‘

‘Imagine That’ – Performing the 4 Gospels

‘Eighteen months ago an actor involved in one of the workshops told me he was at a dinner party when someone asked him what he was doing and he replied John’s Gospel: end of conversation.  The questions left hovering in the air.  Had he got religion or what?  Gone all evangelical or something?  He added it was as if these stories had lost their psychic power with large sections of our society.’

Translating Mark and John

‘The translating proceeds from a pragmatic assumption: here is a story written to be heard by an audience. How then to represent Mark’s voiceprint, that polyphonic texture of manifold repetitions?’