The Struggle with the Angel: A Poetics of Lloyd Newson's Strange Fish (DV8 Physical Theatre)

Theoretically and methodologically, this text offers a contribution to the development of interpretive theory in the arts and to the analysis of performance practices. Topical, conceptual, and methological problems are explored through an extended analysis of Strange Fish (1992) by Lloyd Newson and the DV8 Physical Theatre (UK) I ask how it comments on and reconstructs 'the story' of Christ. It uses well-known moments and images from the story of his life and draws on the morality found in biblical tales. In ironic contrast, it challenges Christian views of morality at a time of discomfort for the Church. Evidence emerges of explicit homosexuality, of child abuse, and the fathering of illegitimate children. This evidence invites the view that theological attacks on different forms of sexuality are mendacious and dishonest.