Scripted and Choreographed
by Ruth Griffin 2007
The work with the cast began with questions:
1. When did you idea of sin begin?
2. Why are these sins deadly?
3. Why are there 7?
Research uncovered clues in Early Gnosticism belief 1-300 A.D.
The earthly sphere was associated with matter, flesh and time. The soul was born from the eternal world of God into human life, which was a kind of fall from grace. If the soul within the human life was successful it made its journey through earthly life back to a state of perfection with God. Earlier still as in 4000 years earlier the idea of a journey was present in an Egyptian Pharaohs’ path in the afterlife. One idea of the deadliness of the sins was that they severed the connection to the divine. The significance of 7 I found related to the ancient astronomers discovery of what they termed 7 planets.
The idea of journey catalyzed the structure of the dreamers progress through the stations of the different sins. The haunting lines from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding gave me the idea of the child discovered at the end.
The work began with this text spoken.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know it for the first time.
Review
I sat with my jaw dropped the entire time I watched The Seven Deadly Sins.
I was mesmerized.
-Bradley Myers Professor of Acting