<\/p>\n
\u2018Riding Lights,\u2019 the Christian drama company that has toured to communities across the UK for nearly 50 years is still going strong, with its production of \u2018Night Falls\u2019 playing to audiences across the country.<\/p>\n
But the curtain could have come down abruptly on its current tour after the company\u2019s van was stolen in Leeds earlier this month with \u00a310,000 worth of stage, lighting and sound equipment inside.<\/p>\n
Despite this, all performances planned for the tour went ahead, using an adapted set from a previous production.<\/p>\n
The current tour features \u2018Night Falls,\u2019 a production written by artistic director and joint chief executive officer Paul Birch. It is a powerful presentation of the Easter story where, in a stark set, two actors playing Lazarus and Jairus\u2019s daughter live out the final days before the crucifixion.<\/p>\n
The production I saw at the Verso Vineyard Church in St Albans, Herts, captivated the audience for the play\u2019s full duration, as the dialogue and interplay between the two people \u2013 both brought back to life by Christ \u2013 wrestle with the implications of Christ\u2019s life and teaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Riding Lights\u2019 describe the characters as \u201cTwo strangers torn between faith and doubt, hope and grief, trying to prevent Jesus of Nazareth from getting himself arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Night Falls\u2019 draws the audience into reflecting on how they might respond to Christ and his claims. The challenge feels deeply personal, both for the characters on stage, and for each of us watching the production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Riding Lights\u2019 are due to perform \u2018Night Falls\u2019 at the Spring Harvest conferences in Skegness and Minehead, as well as in Stratford-upon-Avon, Cornwall and in London, in coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company was founded in York in 1977. Since then, it has toured to communities across the UK, performing in churches, schools, prisons, theatres, and on the streets. \u2018Riding Lights\u2019 describes itself as \u201cshaped by a Christian ethos\u201d with its work \u201cinclusive, accessible and welcoming to all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Riding Lights,\u2019 the Christian drama company that has toured to communities across the UK for nearly 50 years is still going strong, with its production of \u2018Night Falls\u2019 playing to audiences across the country. But the curtain could have come down abruptly on its current tour after the company\u2019s van was stolen in Leeds earlier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[72,4681,2466,2411,1205,8177],"class_list":{"0":"post-24582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-christian","9":"tag-company","10":"tag-drama","11":"tag-high","12":"tag-leading","13":"tag-riding"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}