Mark's Gospel

Press Release

"I've never been to Jerusalem but Lance took me there. Then he brought the characters to life. Then he told the story, quite simply but with immense power." This is just one of the many glowing reviews for a new one-man performance of Mark’s Gospel by Christian actor Lance Pierson. Lance has learnt 80 minutes of the Gospel story and with simple movement and action; he acts the story out, bringing it close to the audience. "Lance was electrifying. He grabbed our attention from the start and maintained it throughout."

Lance is an experienced actor and has taken his Christian and secular one-man shows everywhere from Spring Harvest and St Paul’s Cathedral to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Oval Cricket Ground. In January 2006 he entertained hundreds of church members at the Rochester Diocesan Conference with his show "The 60-Minute Bible" and also performed the Bible passages on the main stage.

Performing Bible passages like this is Lance’s real passion. He feels that all too often we ignore the power that the Scriptures can have when read aloud. He sees his performance of Mark as an important way of taking the Gospel story off the page and bringing it to life. For the show he uses Alan T Dale’s abridged translation New World, as it is vivid and accessible and takes no background knowledge or technical language for granted. Although he acts the story out alone he does ask the audience for their participation at crucial moments to provide sound effects and the noise of crowds. He also uses a power point presentation to show pictures of the landscape of modern day Israel to enhance the audience’s visualisation of the story.

Many churches have used the show as an alternative to a service or as a joint event. During Holy Week 2006 itself Lance visited six churches including St James’, New Bradwell, Milton Keynes. There they invited people both from the parish and from nearby churches to come and enjoy the show. The Reverend Chris Collinge said afterwards "I have had such a lot of positive feedback from people who had for the first time seen the Gospel as a whole instead of fragments."

Other churches used the show as an opportunity for outreach. On Maundy Thursday Lance performed for St Peter’s, Harold Wood in Essex who combined the show with a Bring and Share supper, where members of the church could bring friends. And on Good Friday he went to Handcross Parish Church in Surrey, who held the event in the Village Hall and invited non-church people from the village. One person who saw it said told the vicar, "Easter came alive for me after the Mark evening."

The final word on the show goes to Andrew Graystone of Fords Lane Church in Bramhall, Stockport who said "There were eight year-olds and eighty year-olds in the audience, but it felt as if we were all hearing the Gospel story for the first time. Cancel your church service and let God speak to you in his own words."

What Lance has to say about Mark's Gospel

The idea behind it

There’s something very special about Mark’s Gospel. It is probably the earliest account of the greatest life ever lived, based on the memories of those who saw it happen.

There is also something special about hearing it out loud. It was written before most people could read books for themselves. It was based on the spoken preaching of Jesus’ first followers. And once it was in this written form, it was read aloud in church meetings, week after week.

And there is something very special about hearing the whole story at one sitting. We usually hear only a few verses at a time. But in this presentation I perform 80 minutes of the story from memory, trying to give a full summary of those momentous three years.

The content of the show

I was inspired to do this by seeing the actor Alec McCowen recite the whole of the Gospel in the 1970’s. But unlike him, who used the ‘Authorised’ King James Bible translation of 1611, I take a modern version to give the story a contemporary, relevant feel. I use Alan T Dale’s New World, originally published by Oxford University Press for use in schools. It takes no background knowledge or technical language for granted; and I find it very clear and fresh.

I think the whole Gospel in my style would be too long for most audiences today. So I have selected two halves of about 40 minutes each. The first takes the chief highlights of chapters 1-10; the second tells the story of Holy Week, which is most of chapters 11-16.

The style of the show

I don't stand still or read it from a lectern. With simple movement and action, I act the story out, bringing it close to the audience or congregation, trying to bring it back to life in our midst. It is very powerful and moving; there is no escape from the impact of these world-changing events.

Uses to which it can be put

Obviously the presentation has a special relevance in the Easter season; I am happy to perform the whole thing or just the 'Holy Week' second half. But of course there is no reason why we can't focus on Jesus' life at any time of year when you are following or studying the Gospel story, or want to show it whole to church members and their friends.

The presentation can be 'in church' or in a more informal setting, depending on who you want to see it. It works well as a replacement for, say, an evening service; or as a special one-off event in its own right, perhaps built round a simple meal.