Last weekend I spent a pleasant hour in a dark, sweaty hovel where a shirtless man and his accomplice induced a crowd to scream, clap, rave, meditate and sing karaoke. These things happen in Scotland, albeit with greater frequency during the Edinburgh festival. But Wonder & Joy is no ordinary show. It is the creation of Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, two comedians whose Sunday Assembly, a self-styled “godless congregation”, opened in January in London and has since spread globally.
上週末，我在一間昏暗、悶熱又簡陋的屋子裏度過了令人愉快的一個小時。在那裏，一名赤膊男子和他的夥伴誘導現場人羣時而尖叫、時而鼓掌、時而銳舞(rave)、時而沉思、時而又唱起卡拉ok。這種事在蘇格蘭時有發生，但在愛丁堡藝術節期間上演得更爲頻繁。不過由禮拜日大會(Sunday Assembly)發起人創作的這部《驚奇與歡樂》(Wonder & Joy)可不是尋常的表演。它的創作者、喜劇演員桑德森•瓊斯(Sanderson Jones)和皮帕•伊凡(Pippa Evans)發起的禮拜日大會自封爲「無神的宗教集會」，自今年1月份在倫敦打響後便風靡全球。