Augustine's Oak

by Peter Oswald

Augustine’s Oak, the first play to be commissioned for Shakespeare’s new Globe Theatre, is the story of St Augustine’s mission in 597 AD to reconcile the Christians of the Celtic Church with the authority of Rome.

102 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 16, 1999

Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ostensibly about the mission of Augustine, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, to Britain to convert the pagans. Augustine is a thinly developed character, and the mission becomes a mere backdrop to the story of two sets of lovers - a pagan king and his Christian wife, then their atheist daughter and an (eventually) Christian king, each couple struggling with their differences of belief which gets in the way of mutual affection. The trouble is, none of the characters feel remotely flesh and blood, and the play feels more like a number of sets of arguments with some wishy-washy yearning for union linking them.

Oswald is a wonderful writer and his dialogue, part verse and part prose, is sometimes beautiful and sometimes remarkable. Sadly, this play feels as if it has bitten off more than it can chew, It wanders through conversions, conflicts within the faith (the Welsh cling to Celtic Christianity, Augustine preaches Rome), court intrigue and reports of offstage battles.

It is an ambitious piece, as befits the first new play to be written for the modern Shakespeare's Globe. Oswald talks in the introduction about the many hands that had a part to play in the text we've ended up with - I wonder if the rather messy and confused feel of the piece is the result of that. A disappointment from an intriguing and gifted writer.