The Orange Tree's sacred cow (From Wimbledon Guardian)

The Orange Tree's sacred cow

4:30pm Sunday 8th November 2009

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The Orange Tree Theatre’s artistic director Sam Walters is a committed atheist and has always enjoyed the opportunity to tweak the tails of the religiously minded, writes Will Gore.

In 2005, he wrote a letter to the Richmond and Twickenham Times calling on fellow non-believers to stand up for what they (don’t) believe in and for six months debate raged in the letters pages as readers wrote in to both support and oppose his views.

Walters is now at it again as he stages The Making of Moo, a play by Nigel Dennis that describes itself as “a history of religion in three acts”, at the Orange Tree.

When the play was first performed at the Royal Court in 1957 the audience reacted angrily to its satirical take on religion and Walters is hoping his production makes a bit of mischief.

“I would be happy if this play provokes a debate,” he says.

“I don’t want to offend anyone but I don’t mind if I do. I don’t think you have the right not to be offended just because you believe something.

“It is funny that you can offend my artistic or political sensibilities but then someone says you can’t offend my religious sensibilities, as if they have a protective coat around them.

“There is no reason why they should have.”

The Making of Moo tells the story of a British engineer whose newly built dam inadvertently kills a remote tribe’s river god.

He resolves to create a new religion and Walters says, although the play was written in the 50s, its concerns are relevant to the modern world.

“By the end, the young man feels the religion he has created has lost its way and that is, of course, what is happening today,” he adds.

“I agree with [writer] Christopher Hitchens who fears the rise of religious fundamentalism is a potential threat to civilisation.

“If people believe life is a waiting room on the way to Heaven then that is worrying because it is irrational and you can’t argue with it.”

Walters says although the religion satirised in The Making of Moo features elements of Christianity, the points being made about religion are general ones.

“The play is set in a colonial situation and the characters are British,” he says.

“They are not trying to establish Christianity but it is the only thing they know about.

“I thought about casting it to reflect all religions but realised it would make a nonsense of some of the lines.

“People are clever enough to make the leap – it is a fable set in a far-away country.”

The Making of Moo, Orange Tree Theatre, November 11 - December 12, orangetreetheatre.co.uk

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