Genesis 19, the story of the salvation of Lot from the fire and brimstone rained down by the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrah, has long been a cornerstone of conservative arguments against homosexuality. God despised the sexual immorality of the wicked citizenry, runs the refrain, and thus destroyed them all, sparing only the righteous. But the end of the tale, in which Lot’s two daughters, hiding out with their father in a mountain cave, get him drunk, sleep with him, and wind up pregnant, muddies the waters a bit. Just who’s calling whom immoral here?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
When the WNEP Theater company met last March to plan its 2002-’03 season, the enigmatic phrase “Dirty Bible Stories” was on the list of suggested plays. There was no proposal or script attached to the title, but when company member Emily Dugan heard it, something clicked. She made a pitch on the spot, then rushed home and churned out a proposal for a piece that looked at “some of the more scandalous, morally questionable, or violent stories in the Christian Bible, with the intent to expose both the hypocrisy and the validity of these parables.” She E-mailed the company’s steering committee that afternoon, and a few days later the as-yet-unwritten Dirty Bible Stories was announced as one of six plays slotted for the forthcoming season. Dugan signed on as director (her Chicago debut) and got to work, spending the next four months poring over the Good Book, looking for passages in which God encouraged or condoned acts of incest, murder, and drunkenness.
Last August she gave a list of 60 or so passages from scripture to three writers, each of whom chose one Old Testament and one New Testament story to research and develop. Dirty Bible Stories was cast in October, and through November and December the actors improvised to find ways to make the work relevant to a contemporary audience and to reveal the way religious texts can be manipulated to serve the purpose of the interpreter. Using the videotaped improvs as reference points, the writers–Seth Fisher, Jenny Seidelman, and Dave Stinton–finished the scripts, and a round of rehearsals began in January. The resulting play presents each story within a different scenario. The story of Lot and his daughters, for example, “will be presented as seen through the eyes of children at Sunday school.” The story of Josiah, the young king of Judah who slaughtered the idolatrous priests of his realm, is recast as a Disney musical.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Paul L. Merideth.
