Seen and heard: March 2016

The Mass on the World – meditation day led by our friend Lynne Scholefield on Teillhard de Chardin’s extraordinary work, conceived and first drafted when he was a stretcher bearer in the Great War: on my reconstruction, his spiritual response to the suffering and devastation but also the humanity and compassion which he witnessed. As a Jesuit priest, the strongest thing he could conceive to hold these extreme contradictions was the altar of the Mass; and so, at sunrise with no table, paten or chalice, he celebrates the Mass, offering instead the visualised presence of all the suffering and all the hope in the world. A very personal response, but one which has resonance now, as the world seems to be being torn apart once again.

The Art of Scandinavia – BBC TV series, with Andrew Graham-Dixon as our amiable guide around the history and art of Norway (lots of angst), Denmark (lots of bricks) and Sweden (lots of minimalist furniture).

Bridge of Spies – gripping and heart-warming Cold War spy film from Steven Spielberg, with great performances from Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance and an agreeably slow and measured pace not much seen in mainstream films these days.

The Passion – very moving staged performance of a skilfully-filleted version of Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion by Streetwise Opera, whose players are all homeless or formerly homeless people, and The Sixteen’s professional singers and instrumentalists. The amateur performers and market-place venue gave it the immediacy and groundedness of a medieval mystery play, with the the homeless people sharing amongst them the role of Jesus (Christ as Everyman?) – the rough-and-ready quality of their singing being more than out-weighed by the power and presence of their dramatic performances. The whole was held within the matrix of The Sixteen’s professional musicians, who performed whilst walking amongst the actors and audience as the story demanded, and the really fabulous dramatic narration from Joshua Ellicott as The Evangelist. A tremendous project, which I’m so glad has been documented and recorded.

Lines of thought – exhibition celebrating 600 years of the Cambridge University Library, with choice exhibits arranged in six historical lines: communication, scripture, gravity, genetics, history and anatomy. A chance to see a Newton manuscript, a Gutenberg bible, a Darwin notebook, and so on; but interesting rather than illuminating. Nice website and digital resources, though.