19 July 2025

We went to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre recently. We saw two plays – one a comic version of a novel transformed for the stage via a film by Alfred Hitchcock. The other was a musical with a lively cast of young people who not only acted and sung well but played assorted musical instruments.

The former had been adapted interestingly. However, it waned in two places and would have benefitted from some rigorous editing. The latter was too loud for nuance and any depth in the tale was drowned out by the desire to entertain.

Everyone who goes to the theatre wants to be entertained. They certainly don’t want to be bored. However, a balance has to be struck between diminishing the audience into people who desire instant pleasure from music, comedy and accessibility to people with intellects capable of engaging with deeper matters too.

It struck me that what was happening in this theatre was what was happening on the television and in churches. Things were being ‘dumbed down’ to a lowest common denominator – entertainment. Laughter and instant pleasure were key factors in securing your audience.

But this skill set will not necessarily retain your audience. For when I was starting out in ministry, an elder said to me that people will not attend the kirk on a Sunday morning unless they are being fed. What did he mean by that?

The feeding was surely a reference to Jesus, the Bread of Life. It is the minister’s vocation to share this living bread with the people. This must be our beginning and our end. People are not attending the Kirk not because they are not being entertained but because they are not being fed with the bread of life.