Penda's Fen
Gamma Gamaliel
Shipmate
in Epiphanies
I'd be inclined to start a thread about plays/films etc elsewhere but given the subject matter I though this one may head to Epiphanies territory.
I'd be happy for kindly Hosts or Admins to move it if it's not considered the right location or discussions don't become Epiphanous.
BBC 4 showed the 1973 play, 'Penda's Fen' last night, something of an 'art-house' classic which has been studied and lectured about as a ground-breaking piece of TV drama.
I was in my second year at comprehensive school and well remember seeing it and the discussions with my pals at school the next day. Those were the days when everyone pretty much watched the same thing and discussed it at school or work the next day.
Play For Today featured some pretty challenging material at that time, with plenty of retired colonels in Tonbridge Wells writing in outraged response.
The special effects and subject matter feel pretty clunky today but we were startled by the demon sat on the protagonist Stephen's chest and the homo-erotic dream which preceded it.
In a nutshell, and without too many spoilers I hope, priggish and pious young Stephen Franklin has to come to terms with his identity- he's adopted and his biological parents were 'foreigners' - he's gay and his adopted father, a village Rector has a fairly radical take on traditional, received Christianity.
In dreams and visions Stephen dips back to a pre-Christian pagan past to get 'permission' to express his true self beyond the structures of inherited organised religion.
Along the way we encounter a lefty playwright, strong hints of nefarious military experiments out on the 'fen', industrial unrest and the evils of corporate capitalism.
All very 1970s. All very mid-2020s.
There's even a very creepy Mary Whitehouse style Christian couple and some grisly and very unconvincing gore.
It's deservedly a classic, I think and expresses something of the zeitgeist both then and now... although I think secularism and consumerism rather than elemental paganism have eroded the old certainties.
What do you think of the play and it's legacy if indeed you have seen it?
I'd be happy for kindly Hosts or Admins to move it if it's not considered the right location or discussions don't become Epiphanous.
BBC 4 showed the 1973 play, 'Penda's Fen' last night, something of an 'art-house' classic which has been studied and lectured about as a ground-breaking piece of TV drama.
I was in my second year at comprehensive school and well remember seeing it and the discussions with my pals at school the next day. Those were the days when everyone pretty much watched the same thing and discussed it at school or work the next day.
Play For Today featured some pretty challenging material at that time, with plenty of retired colonels in Tonbridge Wells writing in outraged response.
The special effects and subject matter feel pretty clunky today but we were startled by the demon sat on the protagonist Stephen's chest and the homo-erotic dream which preceded it.
In a nutshell, and without too many spoilers I hope, priggish and pious young Stephen Franklin has to come to terms with his identity- he's adopted and his biological parents were 'foreigners' - he's gay and his adopted father, a village Rector has a fairly radical take on traditional, received Christianity.
In dreams and visions Stephen dips back to a pre-Christian pagan past to get 'permission' to express his true self beyond the structures of inherited organised religion.
Along the way we encounter a lefty playwright, strong hints of nefarious military experiments out on the 'fen', industrial unrest and the evils of corporate capitalism.
All very 1970s. All very mid-2020s.
There's even a very creepy Mary Whitehouse style Christian couple and some grisly and very unconvincing gore.
It's deservedly a classic, I think and expresses something of the zeitgeist both then and now... although I think secularism and consumerism rather than elemental paganism have eroded the old certainties.
What do you think of the play and it's legacy if indeed you have seen it?
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