copyright © 2001 Todd Ristau
There has been a lot of talk about religion in this theatre lately--but no much talk about theatre in this theatre, this chapel of the Devil.
Laugh if you wish, I am not here to be funny. I am not here to entertain. And have no doubt or concern that I won't.
I want to beg you, each and every one of you, to leave this theatre now, and never come back. Not just No Shame, which I have to admit is unparrallelled in its godlessnes and has few if any redeeming features to argue for its justification, but I mean ALL theatre! Every one of them!
You can't do it, can you? You are trapped by the idea that even if what I am saying now is offensive to your godless ear, you wait in the vain hope I might say something funny. Or ironic. Or insightful. Or sexy. Or Lewd. Something to make you feel good because you are so tired of feeling bad. Something to make you feel superior because you are so tired of feeling lowly. Something to make you feel brave because you are tired of being frightened, something to make you feel like you are one of many because you are so tired of being alone.
Don't you see its all a lie?
Now, I like my fun, I'm not so old as to not enjoy a jolly good time, but the theatre is no place of amusement. No, on the contrary, in a theatre passions are aroused, sympathies excited, and emotions are encouraged to overwhelm the soul, and like a brandy drinker loses his taste for water, the theatre goer loses his taste for the simple godly pleasures which reality can afford.
Is Theater Art?
No, art holds a mirror up to nature--and when was the last time you saw Nature ridicule religion and morality for an entrance fee? The plot of most plays hinges on theft, murder, treason, adultery, in short, sin in one form or another. Plays raise passions and pervert the use of them. Seneca said that you can not leave the theatre without becoming more vain, and that nothing is so injurious to morals as a play, for by the means of pleasure vice creeps in.
Don't theatres do good works and charitable benefits?
No, this is merely the most base type of advertising, abusing disaster to further fill the coffers of the devil's parlor. A true Christian charity would not accept tainted offerings and refuse help by such methods.
Doesn't theatre teach moral lessons through displaying negative example?
No. That is how theatre makes money. You can't teach morals by exhibiting immorality for profit. To say otherwise is disgusting twaddle. Its own nature makes this impossible, because the motive of the theatre is not moral instruction but MONEY! The playwright wants money, the actors want money, the play manager wants money....How do they get it? By getting the crowd. How do they get a crowd? By mounting what the crowd wants, and what a crowd wants is excitement. How large a crowd will gather if a theatre advertises in large print an evening of Silence, moderation, patience, poverty, and repentance?
And this brings us to my final warnings about the theatre--its advertising is a disgrace to civilization. Look at this poster: (holds up best of no shame poster)
It compels our young boys and girls to stare slack jawed and drooling while they draw into their souls this picturesque poison. Images such as this--indeed the theatre itself is so unblushingly shameless that one fears to stand too close to a theatre lest he be caught in the conflagration when God in his anger smites it to ash. And how horrible to move directly from the theater seat to the seat of judgement!
Young people should be taught to avoid the theatre because its audiences are made up of a bad class of moral degenerates. Crack open any theatre and you will find exposed in the light of day the shiftless, careless, profane, drunkard and the lowest prostitutes of the street who staff and maintain them and draw to them an audience of like unto like.
You have heard it here! You have participated in applauding that which sneers at religion, and booed those things which promoted virtue, and hooted with glee at anything which gave the least hint of promoting indecency!
Let's go back, back to the core values...when it was unlawful to peform a play. When an actor could not be buried in sanctified ground. When no woman was permitted to marry a man who had been seen on a stage! When actors could be imprisoned indefinitely!
But we can't turn back the hands of time. We have to go forward and we have to take action.
Now some of you might think this idea of supressing the theatre is unamerican, and is a violation of the rights of free speech. This only shows how much you have been decieved by the schoolhouse of lies. In October of 1778, the UNITED STATES CONGRESS passed a motion recommending the supression of ALL theatrical entertainments as productive of idleness, dissipation, and depravity. It was also resolved to dismiss from service EVERY government official found guilty of visiting the theatre. We have lost our way. But by finding the light, we will get back on the path to righteousness!
Are there biblical proofs of the evil of the theartre?
Oh, I can name a few..."Lead us not into temptation", which the theatre does with all its might, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes" and all theatre is wicked to the core, "A good tree bringeth forth not corrupt fruit", "Enter not into the path of the wicked, go not the way of evil men", "Blessed is he who sitteth not in the seat of the scornful" "Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes", "Do all to the glory of God", "whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus" and "Neither be the partaker of other men's Sins!"
Yes, some of you are starting to guess. You have heard the old saw about fires and theatres....if you won't stay out of the theatre for your own good, others will have to keep you from them. Remember that fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. Putting superglue in a theatre door's lock only postpones one performance. Sending filth and excrement to a Literary Manager is irony lost upon the morally dull. Cutting off a playwright's hands only stops the typing, not the thinking. Shooting a theatre owner only creates fodder for more Obie winning trash. Suing theatres only brings them more funding opportunities....no...there is but one way....Remember Hebrews 12:29 that says Our God is a consuming fire.
Yes, you who are not too blind may already see what I am calling for!
IGNORE THE NO OPEN FLAME RULE and let every burning theatre be a revival fire! LET THE THEATRES BURN!
(lights out)
"Abandon the Theatre, for it is going to BURN!"
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Performed by Todd Ristau
Performed by Todd Ristau
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