The Play of Daniel

The Play of Daniel is a twelfth century musical drama about the life of the prophet Daniel. With music, song, and narration it tells the story of the writing on the wall, the lion's den, and the fall of Belshazzar. The Lowell House Music Society's production at St. Paul's Catholic Church is replete with processionals, swinging censers, and echoing trumpets. Backed by the cavernous marble nave, the play is infused with a sense of the ancient and the divine. Although the beautiful voice and lovely, archaic music are enough to make the program a success, there are faults in the production which detract seriously from its overall effect.

The most important aspect of the play, the singing, is uniformly excellent. Each voice fits the character, Daniel, sung by Walter Denny, has a pure, almost ascetic tenor voice. Because of his high range and clarity of tone, his voice alone sets him apart from the plotting counselors and sacreligious king. The contract is especially effective in the scene where Daniel is called to the palace by the prince and courtiers. Their voices are heavy, earthbound and secular, and Daniel's divinely sweet and pure. As Belshazzar John Howell's voice is rough and dull, as it should be; and when Daniel reads him the prophecy of doom his voice quavers and almost cracks with fear. The one female in the production, Sandra Robbins, plays both Belshazzar's queen and the angel. Her soprano voice rings clearly and powerfully over the male voices, and projects almost enough femininity to balance with the rest of the cast. The chorus in solemn, hollow, and always in tune on the difficult modal chants. The small group of instruments is just wispy and scratchy enough to produce a sweetly archaic tone. And the percussion, consisting of a bell, tambourine, triangle, and drum, lends a lilting, ingenuous tone to the music as a whole.

But the lack of imagination in other aspects of the production detracts from the display of excellent musicianship. The costumes are almost humorously incomplete. Courtiers and musicians wear long robes and sometimes tights, but polished black shoes, horn-rimmed glasses and short haircuts keep the costumes from seeming really medieval. When Daniel is thrown to the floor to be dragged off to the pit of lions, we can see loafers and white blue jeans underneath his white robes. He could have at least worn sandles. The lion's costume was perhaps the most ludicrous of all. Wrapped in curling yellow fur, he looks more like a toy teddy bear than a snarlng beast. When he finally eats the plotting courtiers the actin takes place off stage anyway, so that there seems to be no reason for him to appear at all and turn a supposedly terrifying scene into something awkward and funny.

The other important drawback is that the faces of the singers seem inappropriate. Most of them look much too young, like choir boys instead of aged kings and prophets. Daniel and Belshazzar both have beards, but they are scraggly and youthful, not long and hoary. The only person whose face fits the drama is the lute player, who has a very full, dark, biblical beard. Furthermore, the singers are not consistent in their facial expressions; some of them never show any expression at all, while others come up with some amateurish miming. When the queen hears the fatal prophecy a worried expression comes over her face, more like a wife who has burned the potatoes than a queen who is about to lose her husband and kingdom.

But the singing is beautiful and there are many effective theatrical effects, both with the lighting and the sounds under climactic points in the action. This is a production that is worth seeing, not only for the beautiful music, but because it is one of the few medieval dramas to last until today.