Paradise Lost

Last night we saw the Oxford Theatre Company's production of Paradise Lost. It opens with the Son of god dressed as a hoody. It ends with him showing he will atone for sin on the cross. Between we have a dramatic adaptation of Milton more understandable to 21st century people because all the classical references have been deleted. I do wonder how much the audience knew of the Biblical account of the fall for without that you would in difficulty with Milton.

The devil was magnificently acted. The tortures of hell were real. Sin was a seductive pretty female with one breast exposed. Death was ugly and brutal, the product of sin and Satan, a rapist. Adam and Eve were of course naked before they fell. I saw no sexual element in the nudity at all. It was well done though I think an uncircumcised Adam would have been more realistic. We missed out on any sexual relations before the fall. They slept together without intercourse which is not what Milton portrayed. but we certainly has a woman who submitted to male authority in Eden before they fell. After the fall they were dressed like modern commuters, driven from Eden by the angels. A provocative play to which you could take your non-Christian friends but not your young children.