Now this post has been a long time coming. Back in November of 2022, my church took a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see Sight & Sound’s adaptation of the story of David. Forgive me if this post is not very polished as I had other commitments to attend to and wanted to share while I still could.

For those not familiar with Sight & Sound, it’s an entertainment company that produces Bible stories for the stage. I’ve gone to see their productions multiple times as a child (I still have two stuffed animals I got as souvenirs) and this most recent trip was after not having gone for years.

The theater itself is absolutely gorgeous! My group arrived in the early afternoon, but truth be told, the venue looks beautiful day or night. There were many other groups posing for pictures in front of the building.

Once you get inside, the smell of sweets hits you like a truck. As soon as I smelled Sight & Sound’s signature candied almonds, I was submerged in a wave of nostalgia. Their soft heat as you hold their paper bag in your hand, their sugary aroma filling your nose and whatever space you’re in, their crunch as you savor their nutty, sweet flavor….OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!

I couldn’t buy any at the time because the show was starting soon, but you bet I made a beeline for those almonds as soon as the intermission started!

“David” was a three-hour production with a fifteen-minute intermission in between. One thing I’ve always loved about Sight & Sound Theaters is its production values. Whenever they have a play, they always make use of the whole space, not just the stage at the front. Though not noticeable at first, there are extra stages on either side of the audience that are elevated above the center stage’s level. There would often be times when the narrative of the play would follow an actor from one stage to another. They also have the actors perform up and down the aisles and change the lighting above the audience to fit the scene. They really immerse the audience in the play.

Speaking of the aisles, the “actors” include a large cast of animals, including camels, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, and parrots that also travel up and down the isles. The inclusion of the animals really adds to the biblical setting, especially since Israel was an agrarian society back then.

The production was also a good example of “color-blind” casting. The cast was very diverse, with actors of various races and ethnicities playing parts of various levels of importance. Even characters that were ment to be related to each other (such as David and his mother) were of different races. Personally, I didn’t find this distracting at all. The acting was so immersive that I didn’t see the actors as whatever race they were, I saw them as them as David, Elijah, Michal, Johnathan, and so on. They were the characters.

The theater has a sort of “layered” center stage. It’s front, middle, and back can be divided by multiple semi-transparent screens. These screens are useful for changing the backgrounds and sets. One layer can have the projected background and setpieces the audience is currently supposed to be paying attention to in front while stage hands set up the next part of the scene in the back. Then when the scene changes, the screen is lifted and what was behind it is revealed. The transitions are very smooth. They also make excellent use of the screens in crowd scenes. While there would be actors on stage, additional people would be projected on the screen to make the crowd feel more full. A good example of this is early on in the play when the people of Israel crown Saul king.

I want to draw attention to the play’s great use of set pieces. The smooth transitions and vibrant set design really caught my eye, but I was also very impressed by how they decided to depict Goliath and his four brothers. Instead of using normal actors and making stand on stilts or something, they made Goliath and his brothers into enormous, well-crafted puppets. They built up a lot of tension when it came to Goliath by introducing him to the audience as a large, intimidating shadow surrounded by red light. It made his reveal when David faces him much more impactful.

I appreciate what the production added to the characters of David’s story. Generally speaking, with the way the Bible is written, the narratives within are more plot-driven than character-driven. You don’t get much of a look at the quiet moments in the characters’ lives or their internal thought processes. Sight & Sound took the life story of David and humanized its characters without taking away from the story’s core message.

The play established David’s home life before he defeated Goliath, allowing the audience insight into where David came from mentally and spiritually. It gave his character a strong foundation that would be challenged and built upon throughout the play. It also added more detail to his relationship with his men after his defeat of Goliath and his family life after he becomes king.

I really appreciate what they did with the women within David’s story. The story of David is a really masculine story. There are female characters within the Bible story but they usually drop in or out of relevance depending on the chapter. Only his wives Michal, Ahinoam, and Bathsheba really get more than a name drop or play a part in the action in 2 Samuel.

While 2 Samuel does mention David’s father Jesse when Samuel calls him to present his sons, there’s never any mention of David’s mother in the original scripture. Instead of leaving it that way, the play introduced the character of David’s mother. Though a side character, David’s mother plays a key role in preparing David for the role God wants for him at the beginning of the play. Her influence on him is still felt even when David is an adult and facing different trials.

The play also humanizes Michal and Bathsheba.

Michal generally gets a bad rep in the Bible because she scolded David for praising God and dancing in the streets. Here the play has a more sympathetic take on this. She scolds him from a place of worry. She has seen how becoming king changed her father and worries that it will do the same to David. She has a lot more agency than what is described in Scripture. While she does help David escape Saul like in the original story, the audience also sees her reaction to the events unfolding around her. She is visibly upset when her father offers up her hand to anyone who can defeat Goliath and again when she’s forced to remarry when Saul turns against David. She becomes concerned when David won’t perform their administrative duties with her and mourns the loss of her father and brothers. What’s most heartbreaking about Michal in the play is that it’s clear to see that she loves David, but she is neglected when he takes other wives. Which also gives an easy explanation as to why she dies childless in scripture.

Bathsheba is another sympathetic figure. The Bible does not go into Bathsheba’s feelings on what happened between her and David, which I find very unfortunate. Every time I read that part of David’s story, I think of the dynamics between the two. Was Bathsheba okay with sleeping with David? Could she have said no or would the consequences for that have been worse than going along? David was the king after all. She probably came to the palace having no idea David intended to have his way with her. She probably thought something was wrong. The punishment for adultery back then was being stoned to death. One night is definitely not worth the risk, especially since she had a lower status than David.

The play rectifies this. After David spots her bathing on the roof and brings her to his palace, Bathsheba is tortured by guilt. She knows what happened between them was wrong and desperately wants to take responsibility, even if it might get her killed. She wants to tell her husband Uriah the truth and it’s clear from her interactions with David that she resents him. When David gets Uriah killed, she wails in dismay. Though she does end up marrying David, it’s clear that she still feels guilty about their relationship. What I like about the play is that even after marrying David, her feelings aren’t forgotten. The prophet that came to condemn David’s action, pauses to remind her that God still loves her despite what happened. Bathsheba felt dirty and worthless, but instead of her feelings being considered unimportant by the narrative, her value is reaffirmed.

The play also does a good job of integrating David’s psalms into the story. If you look at most bibles, you’ll see titles for the coming verses. In Psalms, many of these titles denote songs written by David and the context in which he wrote them. Psalm 23, “The Lord Is My Shepherd” is pretty much the theme song of the whole play. Other psalms used include Psalms 46, 62, 121, and 138. They fit seamlessly with the performance and have a way of making the psalms more tangible than they are when read straight from the page.

Being a three hour play, the production obviously had to remove some scenes from David’s life to remain coherent. A lot of the events of David’s later reign and family life are removed in order to maintain the structure of David’s character arc. David goes from humble beginnings where his faith is established, a gradual rise to power and growth in faith, his peak as king where has everything and always seems to win, a fall where he sins and fails to rely on God, and a redemption where he turns back to God and is renewed.

The play ends with David quietly passing away with his men, Solomon, Michal, and Bathsheba by his side. As he dies, he is taken up from his deathbed by the figure of Jesus, tying up the main message of the play:

Rely on God to guide you through your life. The Lord is my [your] shepherd.

As a souvenir, I got a DVD of their production of Esther to watch with my family. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested. If you ever go, those candied almonds are a must (unless you’re allergic).