He did esteem St Paul to be a juggler…

A few weeks back I have a surprising phone conversation with somebody who wanted to question the moral nature of BARABAS. The caller hadn’t heard of Marlowe, so I suggested that DOCTOR FAUSTUS might be a useful starting point (a bit naughty) and the caller expostulated about the way that Jerry Springer – The Opera had alienated and offended the majority of the general public (quite frankly, not true).Actually, I think it is great that people are ringing up to ask about this controversial production. It is great that it is actually starting to touch nerves. We have since had more calls and emails. You are welcome to ask any questions that you like about the nature of this play. I’ll do my best to answer them.I can see why a project like this might make the hackles rise. Hall for Cornwall is a high profile organisation, and theatre is the most ephemeral of the live performance forms. Whilst theatre gives people of all kinds the chance to understand the world they live in better, it also gives people an opportunity to experience, awful, difficult things that they might prefer to hide away from. And because it is live you don’t always know what you are getting in to.But good theatre asks questions, rather than making judgements. This play asks huge questions. There is no getting away from the fact that BARABAS is ambitious in its thinking, in its questioning of the world, and in its many messages. Rather than deliberately courting controversy our production aims to open doors rather than make blatant and one-sided statements about religion, commerce or human nature.Whilst there is no getting away from the fact that the play is controversial, it also has a serious and pertinent message for modern audiences. It is violent and extreme, but BARABAS is also a celebration of life. It provides a spectacular meeting point for all of us to find out new things about the world.BARABAS asks difficult questions. It exposes society’s cruel potential to transform individuals for better or worse. And no, it is not a morality play. Nor is it a religious decree. The play is both anti-Christian and anti-Semitic, and it is also neither of these things. None of its three main religious representatives (a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew) ever acknowledge the existence of a God. There is no clear moral stance – it simply exposes endless uncertainty about who is right and who is wrong. It is up to the audience, to you - decide. If you are brave enough, and generous enough.It is a play about the frailty of humans. Marlowe shows us a messy world where love, death, fighting and war are unremittingly regular events just as they are today. He rightly believed that that the world was a confusing and disorderly place but he also believed it to be a place where there was much to celebrate. These two things go hand in hand in BARABAS. Through this work we aim to give all of you the chance to ask why this is so. Why, on the one hand, we are so ready to judge and why, on the other, so ready to turn a blind eye to the doings of the world.The nature of the play, its themes, and subject matter may cause offence in some quarters, and we hope to tackle this with as much sensitivity as is possible. But it is through plays such as this one that we have an opportunity to change attitudes, and broaden minds. This is why we are doing it now.During my first job, at the ripe old age of 18, as an assistant director at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, I remember a leading actor of the time saying ‘...if you want to be a theatre director, remember that there is no right or wrong. There is only not quite right’. In the same vein, what we are doing is neither right, nor wrong – but the best we can do for Cornwall. I hope you’ll be part of that. I also hope that you are all open-minded enough not to say that what we are doing is ‘wrong’.