Theatre Now for 'Monk Rock'

"WHEN HE AWOKE the song was there. Its melody beckoned and begged him to sing". That is the opening line of the book, "The Singer", a poetic allegory by an American writer, Calvin Miller on the life of Christ.
It is also a very neat description of the effect the words of this book had upon Francis Campbell. the Franciscan friar who has written a musical version of "The Singer".
Yesterday, at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London, (not to be confused with Shakespeare's birthplace) this new jazz musical hit the stage. By all accounts it has to be an unusual event.
Jazz musicals are not what you would call two a penny, and when their composer happens to have taken religious vows, they must become collectors' items. The local Stratford paper even gave the show its own brand name — they called it "Monk Rock".
"The Singer" breaks with tradition in other ways, too. It will be the first time that the Theatre Royal has opened its doors to an amateur group since it was given a new lease of life by Joan Littlewood. It is even more remarkable that the entire cast and management of the performance have beenrecruited locally.
Optimistically, they have given themselves a name — Newham '78 hoping that "The Singer" will send ripples across the quiet waters of the East End drama world.
Frank — as he's affectionately called by the parishioners of St Anthony's, Forest Gate, also in East London — recalls that a year ago he was still hunting for the lyrics to put to his collection of melodies.
Until the age of 24 he had been a jazz pianist around the night clubs of Glasgow, but since becoming a friar he had found his energies increasingly channelled into composition.
The inspiration he was looking for finally came when he paid a visit to the local convent. One of the nuns asked if he had read "The Singer", which was first published in this country two years ago. He took the book and read it, and discovered "it was exactly what I had been looking for. It was a worth while text, as an allegory, very attractively put — and the words were poetic and lyrical."
If it had not been for some un expected turns earlier in Fr Frank's life there might have been no music written and no song to be sung. At one stage, dissatisfied with a musician's life, he contemplated taking vows of silence as a Trappist monk.
When he arrived at the rather austere monastery on top of a remote hill, the abbot asked him: "Are you thinking about joining, or just thinking?" He decided to think again.
Looking back, he realises that "my music had no meaning in relation to the problems that I saw around me. I began to feel that music wasn't the be-all and the end-all". It was not long before he made his aquaintance with the Franciscans and finally, having joined them, he became an ordained member.
The stage musical is testimony to Fr Frank's former immersion in the world of jazz, from Progressive Blues to Manhattan Transfer. His playing ability, too, is apparent — our conversation was punctuated by little impromptus on the piano.
"The Singer" is an ambitious idea. because it absorbs some of the best jazz melodies to express the musician's new great love — the Song of Life.
John Widdowson