Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 7: The Stage (Part One)

In the third area of ‘literary’ entertainment, the theatre, the reaction of Nonconformity was more mixed. Efforts to capture the playhouse for Christ being viewed with suspicion and downright disapproval in many quarters. Unlike poetry, which has been used in Christian contexts for a very long time and novels, the first of which in the English language was Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, theatre has long been viewed with disapproval by Christians. In the early church, actors and actresses were barred from Church membership until they left the stage, while the Puritans closed the theatres. Theatres were seen by many Nonconformists as dens of iniquity, actresses as little better than prostitutes, and actors as mountebank seducers. As previously noted, the Methodists of the Eighteenth Century Evangelical Revival were implacably opposed to the theatrical performances known as ‘Interludes’ that often took place in churchyards after the service.

Independent minister John Roberts (better known as J.R, but no Dallas references, please), challenged this aversion to theatrical performances. Starting in 1834, he published a series of ‘dialogues,’ designed to be performed. The first of these, ‘Minister and Enquirer,’ was designed to illustrate the way of Salvation to an audience. Later dialogues included dramatizations of scenes from the Bible, such as Hanes Joseph (The History of Joseph). Coming as they did from the pen of a minister, these dialogues began to be performed in chapels (although not in the main meetings). While some believed theatrical performances could be utilized to spread the Gospel, others voiced deep disquiet, Edward Williams of Dinas Maddwy declaring that the influence of the playhouse ‘is bad even when it is carried on in the most appropriate manner.’[1]

William Williams, Hirwaun, highlighted the dangers that a performance, even when based on Biblical history, could carry, drawing attention to a performance of Hanes Joseph he had seen, in which the attempted seduction of Joseph by his master’s wife was performed, a young girl playing the part of the Egyptian temptress. This, he declared, was pure voyeurism. ‘In using sacred history in this way, we are guilty of turning God’s grace unto wantonness.’[2]

[1] Quoted in Jones, Congregationalism, p.182.
[2] Quoted in Jones, Congregationalism, p.182.