The story of Daniel in the Bible has all the elements of an epic story. The main character is ripped from his family, encouraged to compromise his beliefs, and given a lot of power and responsibility, but he stands firm with integrity. His small group of friends strengthen him and hold him accountable. Then there are visions and prophecies and really bad bad guys. Throw in a fiery furnace and a lion’s den and the injustice of being punished for being good, but everything turning out just right in the end.
With so much raw material for such a great story, how did Sight and Sound come up with something that fell so flat? They got distracted by spectacle.
Spectacle are the extra things that draw away from the actual story, often added, “just because we can.”
One of the first lessons I learned in directing theater was “only include what is necessary.” The mentor who showed me this asked a series of questions. Why did we have the vase on the side table? Did someone use it in a scene? Did it draw attention to itself instead of letting the focus be on the action? Could the scene be accomplished the same way, or even better, without it there? Then if the scene could be done without the set or prop piece, you have permission to leave it out.
In our imitation of nature, remember what Johannes Kepler, the astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher, said, “Nature uses as little as possible of anything.” That doesn’t mean that we can’t have elaborate backgrounds and lavish sets or even animals on stage. It does mean that if those are the focus, we have created a spectacle, not a story. And stories are what make us human and connect us as humans.
The show Daniel got so much right. They made a great defense for studying the humanities as Daniel showed his wisdom from studying history, religion, and philosophy. They showed that Babylon was all about the spectacular and spectacle. They mentioned the difficulty of living true to God in a world that was out to distract and entice them away from Him.
Unfortunately, they didn’t listen to their own message. With such an emphasis on the accuracy of the Babylonia set, the way they moved like modern people was out of place. For example, in one scene, Nebucanezzar and his Queen invited Daniel to sail down the river. The entire boat ride, Daniel stayed still, but both Nebucanezzer and the Queen waltzed around the boat without a thought of dignity. If they really were sailing down the Euphrates, or whichever river it was, anyone watching on the shore would have thought Daniel was the king, and Nebucanezzar a slave seeking to do his master’s bidding.
Daniel’s biggest emotional journey was wanting to go back to Jerusalem, because he thought God was there. But half way through, he learns that God is in Babylon too. But he still wants to go back because his parents are in Jerusalem, until Babylon attacks and executes them. For the rest of the show, home no longer pulls him, he trusts God is with him, and even though the bad guys are out to get him, he didn’t have an identifiable motivation. So at the climax in the lion’s den, the visual imagery was stunning, but Daniel seemed tired and ready for the play to be over. When he hugs his friends goodbye, does he fear of death? Is he trusting God? Does he look forward to seeing his parents in death? We never know. When he hugs them again after getting out of the lion’s den, is he just glad to be alive? Has his trust in God been strengthened? Is he just old and depressed? The staging of both hugs were the same so we cannot figure out the emotional connections from what could be the most memorable scene of the story.
There were also several things that just didn’t move the plot along. In fact they made it drag. The scene with the dry bones. The rotating set pieces every scene. The up and down of the throne from below the stage. Very impressive, but very unnecessary. This made the highlight of the show for one of my boys getting to see the pigs run across the stage. Why were there pigs? I’m not sure. Why did the set pieces rotate every scene? I don’t know. Why did they include the valley of dry bones, when there wasn’t any other reference to its symbolism? I don’t know.
I also don’t know why, when they got so close, did they not go the entire way and make it good? It wouldn’t have been too hard to cut some of the flippant or repetitive dialogue and replace it with a line about the followers of God being like dried out bones because they are worshiping idols instead of worshipping God as He commanded. Daniel could have realized that home isn’t a place on earth, but unity with God, so he could have been at home in the lion’s den because God was there. They could have walked and moved with dignity instead of flailing about or fluttering around, except when absolutely necessary, like when Nebucanezzer turns into a beast.
And why does it have to end with an all cast praise and worship song? I understand that it shows that they are just acting and they really all worship God, no matter who they played in the show, but it doesn’t fit the story. One of the points in the Daniel story is that some people will follow God, but more will reject him. It will never be easy to stand firm like Daniel. We will face longing and lions and loneliness, but we can find God with us in all those situations.
This isn’t to say that there was nothing good. Unfortunately, for each of the things that hinted at greatness, they fell short. For example, the explanation of the hanging gardens was really clever, and the queen sang a version of Daniel’s longing for home song. But when Daniel sang it, he was longing to be with God, and when she sang it, she only missed her home. This could have been a character point for Daniel - where he realizes that in his longing for home, he is longing for the physical, not the eternal.
There was so much that could have been done, but they didn’t do it; they kinda hinted at it, but then let it fall flat. Sight and Sound makes everything spectacular, but in the spectacle, they lost the story and missed making a human connection.
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