“An aborted fetus!” yells Justin Poole, sending a jolt into the audience. After three years of working on Firebrand, this play hit the stage with energy, charisma, movement, and a copious amount of shouting. Thee eloquent, fitting, and spontaneous musical vibrations by Jim Clemens complement Poole’s countless characters to form the moving and thought-provoking Firebrand: The Life of Paul.
Firebrand is an original script written by Justin Poole, an assistant professor and director of EMU‘s theater program. Poole’s play features original music performed and composed by musician Jim Clemens.
The play depicts numerous stories of the Apostle Paul’s travels coming from Paul’s letters in the New Testament, Luke’s words in Acts, and extrabiblical accounts of Roman society.
The play was performed on Friday, Sept. 21 and Saturday, Sept. 22 in the Asbury United Methodist Church and ran for about 70 minutes with no intermission. Although this seems like a lengthy play for one man, Poole milks every minute of it to portray Paul being stoned, imprisoned, beaten, and eventually beheaded for teaching the gospel.
As someone who is somewhat unfamiliar with the journeys of Paul, this play was very informative, yet also unclear at times. Poole intended this confusion; he acknowledges Paul’s ambiguous words often in the play, as Poole defines Paul’s speech as “challenging, controversial, and inspiring.”
Coming into the performance I had a few questions about Paul. What can he teach us about living faithfully? Why did he suffer to prove Jesus is the Son of God, despite once ridiculing this belief? The answer came in many shapes, props, and musical instruments.
From the start of this play, it was evident Firebrand was going to be personal, as the wall between actor and audience was broken down. There were several times the lights would go up and Poole would talk directly to the audience, saying phrases like, “I still don’t understand this line.” Poole was very interactive with the audience. A prevalent quote in Firebrand was “Paul traveled,” so he would have the audience shout this every time there was a scene where Paul traveled.
The use of instruments was also incredibly effective. There was different music for each scene of the play: when Paul was travelling, when the historians were talking, when Paul was talking about women, and so forth.
At the talk-back after the show Jim notes that all of the music stemmed from rehearsal, and each performance or rehearsal contained music that he had not played before. Often, Poole would improvise and add new content into the play, which would cause the music to change and become a fresh idea on the spot.
Overall, Firebrand shone brightly and boldly. Poole’s energy was exuberant through the whole 70 minutes, and the intensity of the performance had me reflecting over the true message Paul conveys. When I asked him about the purpose of this play, he responded with: “I hope that people see Paul in a new light and that they appreciate his insights. I want people to be inspired to take great risks as they deepen their faith and sense of spirituality. I also hope that people will be challenged to treat those they encounter with love and compassion. As Paul states, ‘the greatest of these [laws] is love.’”
You can catch Poole and Clemens again as they perform The Gospel Project: A Theatrical Journey through the Life of Jesus Christ on October 13 at 8 p.m. on Mainstage Theater.
