Star Wise @ Billericay Baptist Church

Billed as a modern musical for Christmas 'Star Wise' follows the story of the Magi (Wise Men, Astrologers) on their journey to find the baby born to be King.  As the title and especially the picture suggests it is set in the Star Wars / Star Trek science fiction genre.  The Magi must hire a star ship to get from their planet to the Judean system, through the occupying armies of the Augustinian Empire. The captain, known as 'Skip' Tickle, of the star ship provides the sceptical voice of the non-believer of the present day, to balance the story and fit it to modern times.  The Judean system is ruled by a megalomaniac Herod to whom the Magi take an instant dislike.  There they must find the right planet so that they can worship the King. On Beth 3M they find the Baby with his mother Mary, and Father Joseph, and we hear some of the prophecies from Daniel and from Simeon in the temple. They return by another route and witness the prelude to the slaughter that Herod initiates.
The whole performance is backed by video clips, showing the controls of the ship, recorded messages (captains log ..) from the chief of Magi - Melchior, and outer space.  The programme contains a list of the films and TV series that the ideas came from, and there are a few tributes to shows whose ideas have not been used - 'Blakes Seven' even gets a mention.  The songs are mostly very clever.  One I particularly likes was about faster than light travel and contains a line something like 'go out in the morning, come back the night before'.  Scientific rubbish, of course, but entirely true to the genre.
Remembering that the cast are complete amateurs and most (if not all) are not regularly involved in drama they did a very good job.  The few minor glitches and hesitations are easily forgiven.  The show is quite long at around 2 hours, but there is an intermission when refreshments are served.  The baptist church itself was really too small as a venue, but I doubt they had much option.
Star Wise was put on to raise money for "Door of Hope".
Jo and I had an enjoyable evening.  Our thanks go to Peter White, the author, the cast and crew and the Baptist Church down the road.

I hope that this was a very successful outreach activity.  It had all the main points of the story, and the script showed some attempt to explain who the Magi were and where their beliefs came from.  God is referred to as 'The Uncreated Creator' most of the time and our captain gets to play hide and seek with the son of God.  Even the captain has the dream warning of the danger of returning to Herod.  At least it should certainly produce lots of questions for any who saw it and were not believers.