Warming Cold Hearts Through Theatre
Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending Pinnacle’s production of The Snow Queen. This play is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale by the same name. It follows a young girl, Gerda, who is on a mission to find her lost cousin Kay after he falls under the spell of the evil Snow Queen’s mirror, which makes all who look in it see only the evil around them and never the good. Initially portrayed as a timid character, Gerda must learn to be courageous if she is to rescue Kay from the Snow Queen. While seeing the world through the lens of the broken mirror, Kay himself has no desire to be saved, nor any notion that he needs saving.
The more I considered the story, the more striking the Gospel parallels became. In fact, at a climactic moment near the end of the play, Gerda must fight her way through a vicious blizzard (another creation of the hateful Snow Queen) by remembering what is true: that in order to overcome this darkness, she must steadfastly remain brave and show love—not the fluffy, depthless love of modern popular sentiment, but the kind of which Jesus says, “greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friend” (John 15:13).
This story of selfless love echoes the love of Christ. Gerda cares so deeply for her friend that she sacrificially risks her own safety and life itself, throwing off the comfort and ease she is offered along the way, to pursue a costly rescue for an undeserving recipient—a recipient who is so deeply affected by his curse that he cannot even begin to want her help until she has broken the spell and rescued him. In the same way, Christ, who was and is the supreme Lord of the universe, took on flesh in order to offer up his own life to rescue us, the unworthy, while we were yet sinners and enemies of God.
I am reminded once again of the way the arts, and story more generally, can shape the moral imagination of our students. By holding up goodness as admirable, worthy, and deserving of praise, we help direct our students to love goodness. Theatre is uniquely suited to this goal because it requires them to participate in the storytelling not only mentally but also bodily. It compels them to put themselves in the place of the characters. If it is valuable for our students to read and admire great acts of courage or love or sacrifice, how much more so for them to perform them—to physically enact such deeds onstage for the enjoyment and edification of others.
Of course, theatre can be a double-edged sword. All too often, the stage is used to portray vice as virtue and to dishonor the commands of God. This danger exists within any creative pursuit, because the fallenness of man leads us to pursue things that are less than worthy and to love sin. We must be conscious of this danger and, by the grace of God, continually reorient ourselves toward truth. For this reason, I am thankful for Mrs. Peery, who read many plays in order to find one that fit our vision here at Pinnacle; for Miss Lape, whose efforts allowed the story to better convey truth; and for the many others who helped direct our students toward excellence in this production.
Stories well crafted teach us to delight in goodness, and the stage allows us to display it for others. Our prayer at Pinnacle Classical Academy is that our pursuit of the arts would help open our students’ eyes to the myriad ways God’s beauty is displayed in the world around us and the ways we can display that same beauty in our own lives.
Laurel McLaughlin
Upper School Teacher
