Part 6 - The Official's Son 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 ever since. 

Well nearly.

This sketch represents a departure from the normal format as Peter doesn't appear in it. This was partly because we wanted to emphasise the distance involved in the healing (so Peter needs to be away with Jesus) and also so that people could finally meet "that Martha next door". Based on John 4:43-54. As this is one of the more obscure references a Capernaum Street sketch is based on, its worth saying that the series has grown from sketches written to fit specific Family Services we were involved in and the collection has therefore grown rather organically (rather than having set out with the goal of writing sketches for all the key points in Peter's life with Jesus).

(Note: the Part numbers refer to the order the sketches were written in and not necessarily the order of events in Peter's life). 

Rating

Characters

• Elizabeth, Peter's wife.
• Martha, their next-door neighbour.

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