Christmas play about life’s choices

THE ACTS Church and its creative arts dream team Lightbulb Productions deviated from the usual traditional Christmas plays this year with a thought-provoking production called “Roadworks Village”. 

The youthful and modern production ran for three days from Dec 23 to 25 at the church’s premises at The Summit Hotel in USJ, Subang Jaya.  

The Scholar (in purple) preaching to a group of villagers from Roadwork Village.

The play, involving a cast and production team of about 100 people, tells the story of a journey of a youth called Boy, who together with two of his friends, are trying to find their place in a tiny village called Roadworks. 

Along the journey, they meet characters like The Scholar, The Businessman, The Bohemian, The Gurus, and The Prince, each of whom tells them what they should choose to do and who they should pledge their allegiance to. 

The village, meanwhile, is home to simple-minded villagers who are good at making roads without knowing where the roads lead to. 

They are oblivious to a coming threat, called the ‘great flood’, which is about to wipe the entire village. A King who lives at a land near the village is concerned for the villagers’ welfare and immediately sends his son, The Prince, to bring the villagers to live in the kingdom, but not without the obstacle of an Evil Wizard who is scheming to see the plan fail. 

With the flood looming, Boy and friends are faced with the dilemma of choosing to follow one of the five strangers. 

Jonathan Cheong as The Businessman (in suit)babbling about the world of business andmoney-making to Boy (left) and Pierce.

Director and scriptwriter Jason Ding said the production was very much something everyone could relate to in their everyday life. 

”The Scholar represents academic qualifications, The Business-man represents money, The Bohemian is all about partying, The Gurus relate to ‘feng shui’ and astrological beliefs that people are into, while The Prince is the son sent by the King, which represents Jesus sent by God to help save the people from their sins.” 

Towards the story’s ending, Boy (played by Jason Khong) chooses to go with The Businessman, while his friends, Frans (played by Esther Wee) and Pierce (played by Philip Gan), choose The Gurus and The Scholar respectively. 

The Prince later sacrifices himself to rescue Boy who was condemned to death for a small misdeed, a haunting reminiscence of how Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the sins of man.  

The church’s senior pastor Kenneth Chin said: “The four strangers, excluding The Prince, are people very familiar to us because they cross our paths every day. It’s the little choices that we make that determine our life’s journey. 

“People seem to be going for popular choices or following what others choose to do. The two friends with Boy are those along with us in our life’s journey that has such a big influence on us. We should learn to make our own choices and choose wisely,” he told the applaudingaudience. 

The production capped off with a cheery musical finale by all the cast members.