"The Midwife's Tale": Ten Plays for Voices

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

Woodbury’s intention in producing this book of plays for voices is
that members of various groups should perform the scripts and then
discuss the themes chosen. These themes include a search for roots,
conflict between youth and elders in a Methodist congregation,
confronting poverty in a northern mining town, and a community’s
marginalization by a dominant culture. The two biblical plays in the
collection give fresh perspectives on how the gospels were written. One
of these—The Midwife’s Tale—is a Christmas story that retells
Christ’s nativity from the perspective of the midwife who attended the
birth. Each play is accompanied by a number of questions that are
intended to lead to individual reflection or group discussion.

Because of the specialized nature of these plays, it would be wrong to
assess their value by using traditional dramatic critical criteria. To a
nonbeliever the plays may seem trite and simplistic, but this is not the
audience for which they are intended. Given the setting of a church
discussion group, a youth forum, or a religious service, Woodbury’s
plays may well evoke the kind of passionate argument and discussion that
the church needs if it is to continue as a vehicle for social change and
personal conversion.