Part 3 - The Denial by Jane And Mark Lewis

Contents

• Background
• Rating
• Characters
• Staging
• Script

Background

Then one of the series we were doing in our Family Services was on the life of Peter. As Peter was a "Northerner" (as far as those in Judea were concerned) we decided to write a series tenuously based on Coronation Street. As Peter lived in Capernaum, the title of Capernaum Street wasn't too difficult to come up with! We were then faced with the constraints familiar to many church drama groups - a lack of resources and a Hollywood special effects budget. These seem necessary given the miracles Peter witnessed. Then we had the idea - what if Peter "came home from work", as it were, from his "day job" as a disciple of Jesus to relay all his experiences to his wife Elizabeth (OK we made up the Elizabeth bit but we know Peter had a wife because he had a mother-in-law - see Mark 1:30). This would mean only two people were required and no special effects!

Capernaum Street was born and the format has remained the same since. Each episode Peter returns from his day with Jesus to recount everything that's happened to Elizabeth in an "up-North"-kitchen-sink-type-Coronation-Street style.

This is the third in the Capernaum Street series and covers the events from the Last Supper (specifically Peter's declaration to never fall away, through to his denial and ultimately Jesus' crucifixion (Matt 26:31-27:56, Mark 14:27-15:41, Luke 22:33-23:49, John 13:37-19:37). This sketch is different because it is intended to be very dark and humourless. Peter should be played as utterly despondent and dejected with Elizabeth's attempts at comfort sounding hollow. Peter thinks Jesus is dead and gone and the last thing he did was to deny his friend and run away - he has absolutely no idea the resurrection is 'round the corner' This contrasting tone works best if the audience are already familiar with Capernaum Street and so are expecting the sketch to be light-hearted - its not a good sketch to use to introduce the characters. Parts 3 to 5 form an Easter mini-series. (Note: the Part numbers refer to the order the sketches were written in and not the order of events in Peter's life).

Rating

Characters

• Peter, apostle of Jesus.
• Elizabeth, his wife.

Peter should be dressed to suggest "fisherman". (E.g. wellies, big woolly jumper, water-proof jacket, etc.)
Elizabeth is a house-proud housewife and should be wearing a house-coat, have her hair in a scarf and have a duster to wave around for emphasis.

Staging

We use three devices to create a consistent "look and feel" to the Capernaum Street sketches:

• The characters are always dressed the same in every sketch (see above).
• For each performance we project the Capernaum St. sign (illustrated above) on an OHP.
• We use, what turned out to be, a very successful device for indicating the start and end of each sketch: the Theme Tune. We both play the first few bars of the theme tune to Coronation Street on kazoos.

Script