Giving voice to G.K. Chesterton

I intend to add a sidebar listing regenerates of yore (folks like C.S. Lewis, George McDonald, Tolkien, Handel, and, sadly, Madeleine L’Engle, who passed away in 2007) once I figure out where to link each of them.  But I thought I’d go ahead and highlight a group that does a fantastic job of giving voice to one of them.

At the Christian in Theatre Arts annual conference several years ago, I had the pleasure to see Peculiar People perform their production “The Happy Man,” which is composed almost entirely of direct quotes from G.K. Chesterton.  Through acting and a bit of puppetry, if I recall correctly, they brought his statements to life in an amazing way.  It was a fantastic production and I highly recommend bringing them to your area to have them perform.

And for free, here’s one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:

Is it possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes the daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life or purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain.

At that conference, I also got to see Doug Berky do an incredibly moving (but completely silent) performance with his amazing masks, as well as Jeannette Clift George (who played Corrie ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place) perform her one woman show, “Corrie, Ruth, and Me” (the Ruth in question is Ruth Bell Graham).  If you ever have an opportunity to see either of those, I highly recommend them.