A Drama on Forgiveness

Tonight I saw "The Hiding Place" presented by the Family Children's Theater in Hutchinson. My nieces Heidi and Kristi and their friend Tryphena had parts. I have seen other plays performed by this arts organization, but never one with such an overt Christian theme. The play was well done and very moving.

Afterward, when we met the cast members, the Ravensbruk guard who received Corrie's forgiveness after the war was over told us the power of God was very real to him during the performance. The ugly parts of his role were so distasteful to him that he thought he could not do them tonight.

Various members of the cast who portrayed some of the less savory parts had a real-life experience of military service. For some of them at least, in bits and pieces, that time came back in an uncomfortable way during the re-enactment of cruelty that had parallels in their own lives. Understanding the possibility of forgiveness through seeing the forgiveness Corrie offered the Ravensbruk guard, by God's grace, accomplished something beyond entertainment, especially for these people.

In college I once took an adversarial stance on drama when a literature teacher who was enamored with it asked us to write a response to an earlier drama seminar she had participated in and I had attended. I still believe that much of what I wrote then is true. I have reservations about how much time it takes to do drama well, and I think it's possible to go too far in assuming bad character roles.

But I think there's a place for drama, just as there is a place for stories. Jesus told stories. Plays are stories intensified by role playing, and when pretend guards, who were once real life soldiers, experience God's forgiveness through drama, the effort is worthwhile.