“Jonah” a Play at St John Bosco College

In a homily given by Fr Mervyn Williams sdb, he mentioned that the ‘Book of Jonah’ would adapt very well to the stage. A seed had been planted, and after working on a script, seven Year 9 students were chosen to act it out.

The main message of the story was that of God’s mercy, and we felt that this was so necessary to be reminded of during a time of pandemic, when people were reflecting a little more deeply on the meaning of their lives. Rehearsals started after Easter, but seemed to take forever, due to the fact that we were dodging the effects of Covid and trying to fit rehearsals in after school whenever we could. We were almost there for the performance in July, when five days before the show, the entire year group had to be sent home to isolate. At that point we were unsure whether our short production would get off the ground at all.

September arrived and we decided to go for it. So after many prayers and overcoming a number of obstacles, including the whale breaking in two, hours before the first performance we put on Jonah to an invited audience on Thursday 21st October. British film director, James Gardner, kindly attended to award certificates at the end.