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From Issue #13, Summer
2006
Book Reviews
Performing Parables
Religious Folk Tales, Legends,and Fables for Readers Theatre
by Matthew Powell, OP
with illustrations by Ade Bethune
Published by Resource Publications, Inc.
San Jose, California
Religion oriented drama
is too often flavored with an obvious and sometimes saccharin piety
that is, unfortunately, an instinctve turn-off for many otherwise faithful
church-goers. Fr. Powell has successfully circumvented this downside
by assembling a collection of tradition-rich "Religious Folk Tales,
Legends,and Fables for Readers Theatre". The plays are age neutral,
conceptually appropriate for children and, as literature, respectful
of mature audiences.
In each play the Storyteller
makes a strong scriptural connection with one or two prefatory qoutes
from the Old or New Testament. This effectively suggests the theme of
the story and gracefully establishes the piece as faith centered theater.
A quick scan of the
contents page reveals the wide ranging scope of sources and message.
The eighteen plays in the collection run two to fifteen minutes each
and are carefully sourced. Some examples:
The Magic Leaf -
A Jewish Fairy Tale - from The Jewish Fairy Book by Gerald Friedlander.
The Legend of Mont
St. Michael is a medieval
folk tale that was first put into print in 1888 by Guy de Maupassant
(1850-1993)
The Scholar's Soul.
A verson of this story
first appeared in print in Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry,
compiled in 1888 by William Butler Yeats.
The Poor Man in
Heaven is from the fairy
tales of the Brothers Grimm (Jacob, 1785-1863, and Wilhelm, 1786-1859),
which they compiled between 1812 and 1822)
The Wise Rabbi -
A Jewish Folk Tale - is
an ancient Jewish Folk Tale from the oral tradition. Its first appearance
in print was probably in Ma'aesh Buch, published in the late
sixteenth century. An English version of the story, entitled It Could
Always Be Worse, was incuded in A Treasury of Jewish Folklore,
by Nathan Ausebel
The following titles
complete the table of contents:
The Onion - A
tale from the Brothers Karamazov
St. Nicholas and the Three Dowries - A
legend
David, the Spider, and the Wasp - A
Jewish folktale
I. The Pebbles of the Arno - A
Tuscan folk tale
II. How the Church of Santa Croce Got Its Name - Another
Tuscan folk tale
The Fate of Frank McKenna - Irish
folk tale
The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey - A
fable by Aesop
St.Anthony and the Lame Man - A
Mexican folk tale
TheStomach and the Other Members of the Body - A
fable by Aesop
The Child Who Fed the Crucifix - An
Italian folk tale
The Man Who Carried Christ -
Blessed James of Voragine, OP
(1230-98)
Daughter of Snow - A Russian
folk tale
The Devoted Friend - From
a story by Oscar Wilde
Numerous illustrations
by Ade Bethune (1914-2002)faithfully comlement the collection. Born
Adelaide de Bethune in Schaerbeek, Belgium, she emigrated to the United
States in 1928. She signed her artworks "A. de Bethune." Because
of a misunderstanding at the printer's shop, her first byline was "Ade
Bethune." She kept the name, and pronounced the first name AH-dee.
From 1933 to 1938, Bethune was closely associated with Dorothy Day and
Peter Maurin of the Catholic Worker movement. Her artwork has been part
of The Catholic Worker newspaper masthead since 1938.
Elsewhere
in this issue, we have abridged the Introduction to Performing
Parables as a stand-alone article by Fr. Powell.
(Reviewed by Bob
Demers)
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