A wonderful summer afternoon – Praise the Lord – was spent in central London, where the Prince of Wales theatre resides a few metres north Piccadilly Circus Tube station. In this part of the world, the sun has the ability of drawing people out of their homes into the street. Therefore the streets, little alleys nearby and roads were pact full of people. The theatre opened its door at 2:00 PM and by then people have already formed a queue, a very fine British custom, at the door of an American play. Lovers of louvers of black comedy in all of its form are aware of one infamous show which is responsible of breaking all the rules of TV in term of provocation, South Park, where no place for hiding when it comes to stereotypes, race, religion, politics, history, celebrity culture, corporations and any national – in the US, or international issues. All the aforementioned is addressed with a tongue in the cheek style from a prospective of four elementary school pupils. Another fascination aspect of the show which has helped creating a cult following worldwide is the crooked shape cartoon which has over has improved slightly over the last few years, however, the makers have avoided any over the top slick Shenanigan seen nowadays in adult cartoon shows across the zillion channels out there.
One of the most memorable episodes was the All About Mormons, where the moron religion was under the spot light. The following link provides a comprehensive review about the episode. Even though the Mormon religion was under thorough questioning, the sub message from the episode was directed to all religions, reality vs. dogma vs. make belief.
Here is rule number one if an issue is ever raised on the show. Take it in the chin and move on. Do not respond. Have a laugh and on the next one. The moron church questioned the show, issued a very polite statement which was expected by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the writer of the play, and creator of South Park. Going back to the sub message, the respond could have not come at a better time, as certain issues regarding other house hold religions were surfacing, yet addressing those issues would have proven costly to the show and most importantly to the network. So by focussing on the Mormons and their book, the backlash would reach the intended targets, without having to worry about riots, burning effigies and beyond .
The brain storming started and a few years later, makers of South Park converted the idea behind that infamous episode into a theatre play, a first experience for Matt and Trey, and it was a hit, sold out in a matter of minutes of general release. Broadway was a host of the first display, followed by a tour in North America. London West End had the honour of hosting. Few months later, The Book of Moron posters are still everywhere to seen and the show resides at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The story flow a story of two moron elders (a position at the cherish) who graduated and were ready to serve the cause of The Lord Jesus Chris according to the teaching of the book of Mormon. Before been fully inducted into the church role, elders, young men, have to serve two years in a missionary post in a destination picked by church of Latter Day Saint a companied by another elder. Almost all were scattered around developed countries, Norway, England, and Japan, except of the chosen two, main characters. They were sent to Uganda, and that where the makers of South Park thrive. An articulate storyline very well executed by all the actors and got the full house full of excitement and laughers and cheers. Throughout the play delicate musical skits were great and full of stereotypes and charged with tongue in the cheeks race remarks. One of them was we are Africa, a skit performed by a group of white elders serving in Uganda. We are Africa was the chorus line. We are the Lost Boys of Sudan was the solely reference that gave the legitimacy for this post to be published on the Resudan blog! The concept of this phenomenon could be applied to us in Sudan, where the religion was used as a tool exploited by the elites in power to drug thousands of youth to fight on their behalf a holy war against the citizen in South Sudan, and other marginalised part of the Sudan.
The musical is strongly recommended, however, it is neither for the easily offended, nor faint hearted.
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