Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theatre, London

The Book of Mormon is playing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the same block as our Thistle Hotel.  I’d heard it was hilarious and that young Mormons loved it but the church officials considered it suspect. Institutional folk especially the old have never been known for their sense of humor.

Erickson described the Parental, Adult and Child aspects of the mind.  Institutional folk like police and beurocrats and the officious in general have clearly overdeveloped Parental functions to the detriment of their child function.  The play actually dealt with this.

It was simply hilarious. There was so much absurdity that really only a child could appreciate the truth of it. The songs were catchy modern mixes of African American and the dance, which I love, was cutting edge.  The play was Constantinian Christianity or Cargo God, a challenge to all who worship the ‘book’ of any kind, especially those who cherry pick and somehow miss something.  

Exclusivity and inclusivity. The gay debate and the slave and women issues of St. Paul.  It didn’t speak to the book of Islam but it was by no means limited to the Book of Mormon.  

All the First World  religions  were there in this microcosm of a  Mormon American ministry to Uganda.  What a fabulous interface.  Warlord’s ,Aids, superstition and the dreams.  Hollywood pantheon versus the Greek pantheon and the saints of Christianity and the Joseph Smith

All around us were young mormons thoroughly enjoying the play.  The audience was primarily young people but that could just be my perception.  Nothing funnier than hearing a missionary passionately talking about ideas to a man who responds “I’ve got maggots on my scrotum.”  

The prevalent problematic machismo African belief that intercourse with a virgin cures aids leads to infant intercourse but is cured by displacement  to fucking frogs.  It’s so bizarre with Star Trek and Darth Vader incorporated.  I loved it.  Nothing is funnier than seeing what the village believes they have been taught.  The church officials are beside themselves. 

Is God man made or is man God made?It’s a breath mint and a candy mint. Only time separates but to the omniscient there is no black or white.

 Did you get the ‘hell dream’. The hell scene is priceless.   The right and wrong of childhood becomes the corporate curse  of the American underbelly.  The future is Africa.  

The cast was black and white.  I loved it. Laura loved it.

“I couldn’t stop laughing, ‘ she said after. I’d heard her literally snorting behind her mask beside me.  

So no it wasn’t sacriligious. I’m not Mormon.  But I don’t have a problem with Jesus appearing in America or on any planet after crucifixion. I don’t keep God in a box ,even a shrodinger box.  The Collective Consciousness is the ‘in the beginning was the Word’.  This play is so funny it should  be required reading for all religions.  Maybe it would stop girls having their clitorus removed. The baptism duet was perfect.  It’s today’s Life of Brian.