King David - Man of Blood

Synopsis

Lucifer makes a wager with God and sets out to test the loyalty of his favourite son, King David, Man of Blood. David's eyes are opened and for the first time he glimpses the demon inside his own god-like being. Now David must question the nature of a God who continues to bless him, a 'war criminal' in all he does. What does this say about the God he worships? Encouraged by a new servant Cusay, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a character we've already met somewhere, David determines to set God a test of his own. Seducing the beautiful Bethsebe and sending her husband Uriah back to the front with sealed orders, David inches his way toward a crime any good God must surely punish. Mustn't he? In the battle between heaven and earth which ensues, the innocent quickly fall and David's challenge to God assumes cataclysmic proportions... King David, Man of Blood re-spins a classic biblical tale to devastating moral effect, fetching up on a very modern shore, where horror, tragedy, comedy and a terrible beauty co-exist.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 1 June 2010

In King David, Man of Blood, Fraser Grace has written a literary as well as a literate play. That’s not necessarily a bad thing and it’s one with a fine pedigree. The outline of the Old Testament story is a familiar one and Grace centres his drama on the middle period of David’s life when youthful heroism is settling into an edgy majesty. The human interest evolves from David’s wooing of Bathsheba (here Bethsebe) but this is wrapped round in the wider aspect of David’s relationship with God. And with his fellow men.

As in classical drama, much of the action is carried forward in two-person exchanges. As in medieval theatre, God and Lucifer appear on stage. As in the mid-20th century plays of Anouilh and Giraudoux, questions of modern political and personal morality are presented in the framework of a past era. It all requires very good speaking as well as visual coherence. This doesn’t always happen though the large cast performs with ...

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