Faith or fallacy?

The new year for theatre company Unifaun starts off with the introduction of another contemporary playwright. After having introduced Martin McDonagh, Jim Cartwright and Mark Ravenhill, Howard Brenton is the next divisive playwright that Unifaun bring to the Maltese audience. Howard Brenton was born in Portsmouth in 1942 and has become an acclaimed playwright, TV and radio scriptwriter. He has always been one to stir up debate and he is most famous for this in his play Romans in Britain, which was produced in the 1980s and stirred up a legal battle against the play's director by Mary Whitehouse, an avid campaigner who fought for the defence of morality through the media in Britain. The main complaint was against the simulation of a rape scene on stage.

Howard Brenton's anti-institutionalism can be seen in the work he carried out recently when writing some of the episodes for the BBC hit series Spooks. An interview posted on the net with Andrew Woodhead, producer of the same TV series, reveals Mr Woodhead saying: "Howard's knowledge of the world, his experience and knowledge of politics mean his scripts are so real and so prescient. He'll write something and then it seems to happen. Last year, he did a story about red mercury, which none of us had ever heard of, and then suddenly it was all over the papers. Police were even asking us where we got our facts".

In Unifaun Theatre's forthcoming production Paul, which coincidentally features in the month dedicated to our patron saint, Howard Brenton writes about St Paul's journey to Damascus giving the plot an interesting twist which will only be revealed to those in the audience. The play may seem to hang on to Dan Brown's ideas in The Da Vinci Code but as Adrian Buckle (Unifaun's theatre producer) assures me it is superior to The Da Vinci Code in that much more research was carried out here and the facts are highly precise: "We had a biblical scholar give us a lecture, and while he did point out a few odd points where the play clashes with the teachings of the Church, he also pointed out that the play is very nearly historically correct. Yes, there are controversial issues, Mary Magdalene's marriage to Christ being one, but essentially the play is not trying to be sensational, as The Da Vinci Code did. This makes it more effective, and more controversial. For example, we are always given the impression that Joseph and Mary were poor people and so Christ was born in a stable. But the Bible says that they came from the house of David, Joseph was a carpenter (one of the leading trades in Judea in those days), Jesus was given an education in the temple (something a poor family certainly would never afford) and Christ was born in a stable not because Joseph couldn't afford a room. The Bible states clearly that he was ready to pay. The thing is no room was available!"

This is just a taste of what is actually explored in this play. Some may find it blasphemous but it is in no way an attack on Christian faith. "Brenton is saying, let us, for a moment, forget Jesus Christ was God and put aside all the metaphysical circumstances. Let us say he was an ordinary human being. Does that retract anything from his teachings? The answer is no because we see that modern European justice is actually based on the teachings of Paul of Tarsus," says Mr Buckle, "I do not see this play as an attack on the Christian faith. If anything, it reinforces faith. I'll accept it is irreverent and controversial, even more so than The Da Vinci Code. Many might see it as controversial because here we are encouraged to accept and swallow rather than understand and comprehend. This leads to myth not faith. Those who do lose their faith after watching this show would have lost it anyway. And they would have lost it not because of the content but because they never sought to comprehend what their faith was about".

The cast is strong with Manuel Cauchi as Paul and Kevin Drake as Peter. Other roles include Paul Portelli as Yeshua (Jesus) and Nero; Stefan Cachia Zammit as Barnabas; Victor Debono as James; Maria Buckle as Mary Magdalene; Mario Spiteri as the Arab trader and Christian Micallef and Mariano Said as soldiers, temple guard and gaolers.

Victor Debono's comments are intriguing "I play James... he is Yeshua's brother, and very different from him.

He knows a lot and has a secret to protect. He is also very proud, ambitious and crafty... but dignified and with a sense of duty... and yet, do we like him...?" Manuel Cauchi defines his role in a nutshell, "playing man and saint? Need I say more?"

Mr Buckle is having a busy time producing a play like this. The need to capture a different political era and to play the moment without turning a biblical episode like this into a pageant is all very challenging. Although the play has already received complaints due to the nature of its hot topic, once again Mr Buckle assures it is not an attack on Christian faith. Now he is just curious to see the audience's reaction.

• Paul will be staged by Unifaun theatre at St James Cavalier on February 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25. For bookings call 2122 3216 or book online at boxoffice@sjcav.org