Michael Maher, a Catholic lay minister, was touring museums in Florence two years ago when his week of Renaissance art–which included a visit to Michelangelo’s David–brought on an epiphany. “Why,” he wondered, “did they decide that all these biblical characters should be nude?”
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Word Made Flesh, which opens this weekend at Bailiwick Arts Center, is the product of Maher’s reflections on how the sacred is expressed through the human form in art. It’s an attempt to express that sanctity through theater–rather than through statuary and frescoes–by using passages from Scripture to create a piece that begins with Genesis and draws on psalms, proverbs, and parables to articulate the relationship between God and humanity. Three men and one woman portray Moses, David, Solomon, Job, Isaiah, Paul, Jesus, and John by speaking the text as a series of monologues. They do so nude.
Maher says he aims to explore both the intersection of religion and visual art and the ways in which people find spiritual meaning in human sexuality and human experience. The text of his script is culled from passages that are both familiar and provocative, such as Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd…”) and the Song of Songs.
Word Made Flesh opens Saturday, February 9, at 3 at Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont. Performances are at 10:30 PM on Fridays and at 3 on Saturdays and Sundays through March 10. Tickets are $15; call 773-883-1090.
