It ain't quite "Year Zero", but there was a rather loose re-telling of the Book of Genesis touring mid-European towns in the middle of the 12th century called "The Mystery of Adam". Medieval Mystery or Miracle Plays more or less unwittingly recreated the ancient Greco-Roman experience of cathartic religious theater. (Curiously enough, they were MORE removed from the Greeks and the Romans intellectually than we are.) Strict re-iterations of lithurgical drama gave way to endless variations on the COOL STORIES. The separation of Church and State is a silly modern hang-up; the separation between CHURCH and THEATER is the true metaphysical problem. To this day, Southern Church-goers will talk about feeling the Spirit coming over the congregation, probably unaware that the same Spirit also comes over the exhilarated participants of the currently running "Hair" revival.
What I find most intriguing about this classic Miracle Play is the deviation from the Adam-and-Eve fig-leag motif. I think it's thoughtful and innovative, and obviously an invention driven by stage necessity: here Adam and Eve are NOT naked in Eden, but rather richly clad, and after the eating of the fruit the awareness of their sin leads them to rip their clothes apart and cover themselves with dirty leaves in expiation. Interesting medieval twist.
I suppose I should state my intellectual understanding of the myth, which flows well enough with the religious consensus (as much as there can be consensus on these things): Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit leads him to the awareness that he is naked, an animal, it elevates his thinking, it leads him to questions of choices between good and bad, awareness of SIN, etc- hence the election of leaves to cover the nakedness before God. God WANTS the nakedness, the free spontaneous actions and sexuality of animals. Most animals aren't great sinners, but they also aren't great thinkers. The shame, the perception of sin, the wanting to HIDE things is God's tip-off that man is AWARE, closer to GOD-LIKE, which is a big No No for that jealous, rather insecure Old Testament God. THERE is the original sin of mankind: Pride. Wanting to be like God. How is this sin redeemed and forgiven? Through a sacrifical lamb, a Scapegoat. What's a Scapegoat? The embodiment of a sin that is then killed so that the sin goes away. What's the Embodiment of man's SIN of wanting to be like God? Well, there you go, a man who says He IS God. The death of THAT man is the only thing that can expiate for mankind's Original Sin.
I realize I've stated the Christian arch a little more bluntly than most Christians would like it, but that's what the story means, and that's what a sacrifice is. If Jesus wasn't a symbol of man's greatest transgression, and if His death didn't free mankind from Original Sin, then he was just another cult-of-personality-wacko among the many thousands that have stepped to the microphone and gathered followers.
Back to theater. It happens THERE so that it doesn't have to happen HERE. The play, the opera, the movie, the TV show, the videogame, they're the Scapegoats. All our fears and horrors and sadness and idiocies and transgressions go away if we put them up there and start talking about the stupid things we've done, and how we can avoid them, or do them better.
Surely you know the word "tragedy" comes from the greek Tragoidia, "GOAT-SONG", right?
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