By Peter Wooding

Regarding his latest production, “Apostle of Faith” (about Smith Wigglesworth), actor David Robinson says: “He was a gruff, blunt Yorkshire plumber who came to know God and had an amazing ministry in healing and preaching and some of his miraculous encounters and meetings that he spoke at just blew my mind when I read them. In fact there were almost too many miracles and healings in the books to put on stage because you got a bit blasé, somebody else was instantly healed and people coming back to life from the dead…”

(Colwyn Bay, North Wales, UK)—Rather than seeking the bright lights of Hollywood, actor David Robinson uses his talents to re-enact the lives of true heroes of the Christian faith in a number of productions toured by the UK-based Saltmine Theatre Company.

Born in Lancashire in the North of England and now living in the West Midlands, the majority of David’s training was at Amersham College. He then went on to work at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London before joining Saltmine Theatre Company as an actor in 1989. Since then he has performed in all their major productions, he was made leader of the company in 1991 and subsequently Saltmine’s Creative Arts Director in 1998.

He has also written several of Saltmine’s productions including Three Wise Men and a Baby, The Hiding Place, When I’m Calling You and the original adaptation of The Cross and the Switchblade. His other writing commissions include writing for Spring Harvest, BBC, Tear Fund and Open Doors. He has directed and co-directed a number of Saltmine’s productions as well as touring with his own one-man show Hatch, Match and Despatch.

Bringing classic heroes of the faith to a new audience
Speaking during their recent UK Looking Good Being Bad tour with author Adrian Plass in Colwyn Bay, David told me why his theatre company chose to take on these kinds of productions, which have also included him portraying Richard Wurmbrand in Tortured for Christ and David Wilkerson in the Cross and the Switchblade: “Well all those mentioned are classics of their time but are ready for a new audience. Sadly I don’t think they always sit on everyone’s bookshelves these days so we wanted to try and bring them to a new audience.

“From The Hiding Place, Tortured for Christ, God’s Smuggler—these are really wonderful true life stories. They are things you can’t argue with that really happened to these people and great dramatic stories. They just lend themselves to putting them on stage, with real meaty characters to get your teeth into, like Brother Andrew, David Wilkerson; Corrie Ten Boom just inspiring characters.”

Playing God’s Smuggler Brother Andrew
One of David’s most demanding roles was portraying Brother Andrew in a one-man show called God’s Smuggler: “It was a privilege to meet him and get some background about his life for portraying him. He wasn’t the easiest person to interview. He didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. I think he’d moved on from those Bible-smuggling days.

“But it was interesting to talk to him and obviously read his books and do the research behind it. I think it was the first time I’d done a one-man show for such a long time. Tortured for Christ was a bit shorter. It’s a little bit nerve wracking being up there on your own. The first couple of shows we realized it was a strong story and it was working. It was the 50th anniversary of Open Doors so the organization got behind it big time and it was a good success.”

Demanding preparation for historic roles
I asked David how much it affects his personal life when immersing himself in these demanding roles: “…It does take over; I find if I’m writing it or dramatizing it myself, then I do live it a lot more in the run up, and it’s a big pressure knowing that first night is coming. Not only have you got to be ready as a performer, but you know the script has got to be ready and written, and of good quality well before that.

“Going back to The Hiding Place, we visited the Netherlands and Corrie Ten Boom’s shop in The Hiding Place, and Judy Moore (who adapted it for the stage) and I met a lot of Dutch people, along with some people who’d survived the concentration camps. That all helped us in creating the look on stage, and some of the characters as well. It’s a big challenge to create some of those people because she only died in the 80s. Some people met her and knew her, talked to her and had expectations when they came into the theatre that you try and live up to.

“That’s certainly true of Brother Andrew of course, who’s still as busy as ever and people are meeting him all the time.”

I asked David how he prepares mentally to remember so many lines and if he ever goes blank on stage: “The one advantage is nobody knows if I’ve gone wrong so you just keep stumbling on. You just put markers in the script that prompt you to know what part of the story comes next so you know when you get to a certain stage, like his first trip behind the Iron Curtain, you know that the next thing is, he’s back in Holland raising money, then the next thing after that was go to Romania.

“You have to have prompts in your mind that tell you what’s coming next and you have to just put the time in and the work learning the lines. If you know the lines and you put those prompters in your head, then you have to just trust when you step out on the stage that your memory will tell you what’s coming next.

“You occasionally have those odd moments, thankfully very, very rarely that you go blank, you don’t know what’s coming, but they are nightmare moments when it happens, but they’re very rare.”

“Mainly, it’s things you can’t account for like maybe something technical going wrong or a bit of the set collapsing on you, which we have had occasionally and when there’s drink or food or certain props on stage. I know with The Hiding Place we did have to eat quite a bit. Corrie and Betsy were always cooking and baking and occasionally you maybe took a slice of cake at the wrong time, so it’s more those practical things that get me a bit nervous.

Apostle of Faith Smith Wigglesworth
David’s latest role is [that] of Smith Wigglesworth, the well-known English healing evangelist: “Yes, that’s the production Apostle of Faith, one of the newest characters that I’m portraying and somebody I didn’t know an awful lot about. But Phil Collins, my colleague at Saltmine, always wanted to see Smith Wigglesworth’s life dramatized on stage so he talked to me about it and obviously I had to read up on this amazing character and one of the fathers of the Pentecostal movement in the United Kingdom.

“He was a gruff, blunt Yorkshire plumber who came to know God and had an amazing ministry in healing and preaching and some of his miraculous encounters and meetings that he spoke at just blew my mind when I read them. In fact there were almost too many miracles and healings in the books to put on stage because you got a bit blasé, somebody else was instantly healed and people coming back to life from the dead. Amazing things, which you read and you have to go back and ask ‘did that really happen?’ And again he only died in the 1940s, so there are some people who remember his family and know about his ministry and so you have to be accurate and careful to get it right.

“We’re offering that production to churches for Sunday services. It lasts about an hour and then Phil Collins will preach after that and we have some music intertwined in it as well. It’s a brilliant production and an amazing story.”