Away in a manger: Re-creating Bethlehem for Lahore’s faithful

Children and youth of St Mary Magdalene Church put on a nativity play.

LAHORE:

The story is steeped in antiquity and is narrated every Christmas the world over but time stood still at the St Mary Magdalene Church on Saturday as children and young adults staged Emanuel-God with Us, a nativity play, that transported the audience to the ancient town of Bethlehem.

The Christmas nativity play, a theatrical rendition of the events leading to the birth of Christ, is staged in churches throughout the country each year. St Mary Magdalene’s Sunday school and members of its youth group worked together on the play and rehearsed for weeks, sometimes, well into the night.

The play opens to a monologue by Mary bemoaning the state of the Israelites and imploring God to save her people. An angel appears and gives her glad tidings. Mary is told that she would give birth to a son who she shall call Jesus.



In the following scene, Joseph is shown contemplating how he would be able to leave Mary in shame. The scene demonstrates the amount of thought that has gone into conceiving and executing the play as the audience witness, probably for the first time, Joseph’s perspective. The way he is shown surrendering to the will of God and taking Mary to Bethlehem, to get registered in a census held on the order of Caesar Augustus, is pregnant with humility and submission.

It is attention to detail that transforms the mediocre to the sublime. A scene showing shepherds huddled around a fire being told about the birth of Christ is particularly striking.

“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you. He is the Messiah. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby lying in a manger wrapped in cloth,” one of the angels tells the shepherds as the curtains in the backdrop open to reveal a multitude of angels in white.

The lighting and sound effects and echoes of “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests” reverberated throughout the cathedral before culminating in thunderous applause as the scene came to a close.

The three wise men were shown making their way from the entrance to the stage depicting their onerous journey to find the “King of the Jews” whose birth had been foretold. Bearing gifts of gold, real burning frankincense and myrrh, the men appeared to be completely in character. Their ornate costumes served to compliment the props.

Aman Rehmat essayed the role of King Herod, the megalomaniac despot, to perfection.

The actor succeeded in bringing the character alive with his nuanced performance of a man committed to preserving his throne at all costs.

The final scene was elaborately set - complete with bales of hay - to portray a manger and an embellished star positioned on top of the set.

Little ‘shepherds watching their flock at night’ (Left) Angels serenading Mary and Joseph at the manger (Right). PHOTOS: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

The play concluded on a moralistic spinoff depicting Zaccheus, the inn-owner who had placed Mary and Jesus in a barn, undergoing a change of heart and repenting his previous actions.

Director Toobia Yousaf’s narration of biblical verses throughout the play was splendid. The ornate costumes designed by Aman Rehmat and Aleesa Fateh spoke volumes about the amount of attention and detailing that gone into conceiving the apparels. The light and sound direction by Sagar Barkat lent a celestial feel to the stage and the final narration of verses by Reverend Saleem Sultan concluded the performance adequately.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2014.