The Word Made Alive: A Weekend of Sacred Storytelling

Name: The Word Made Alive: A Weekend of Sacred Storytelling
Start: 2026-04-26T17:00:00-04:00
Location: Bethany Presbyterian Church

Schedule

Sun, 26 Apr, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Bethany Presbyterian Church | Castle Hayne, NC

Years before the Bible was canonized, people told the stories around fires and in homes that we now read in the scriptures. Biblical storytelling takes a two-dimensional “reading” of the scripture and turns it into a three-dimensional ”telling” of the story.
Davide Bardi and Paola Balbi, are the Artistic Directors of Raccontamiunastoria (Tell Me A Story). They will perform three times over the weekend of April 24 - 26. They have told these stories for more than a decade, and make every performance different through music and improvised content.
These events are FREE and open to the public, but donations are welcome to bring professional artists, like Davide and Paola, to Wilmington.
Sunday, April 26th
5:00 pm
Bethany Presbyterian Church
2237 Castle Hayne Road
Wilmington, NC 28401
“David and Bathsheba”
When Christ entered Jerusalem before Passover, he was welcomed by a cheering crowd shouting: “Hosanna to the son of David!.” But who really was this David, forefather of Jesus and mythical king of Israel? And, who was that Bathsheba mentioned in the Gospel of John as mysterious foremother of Christ, and remembered as such forever and ever?
Produced by the Italian storytelling Company Raccontamiunastoria, David and Bathsheba is the emotional and passionate retelling of the most shaking, shocking and controversial story of the Bible: a forbidden burning passion, a cruel murder, a lost child. Lust, blood, tears... and the story of the never ending struggle of humankind trying to reach God.
Universal and extreme, the ancient story of David and Bathsheba speaks to the hearts and souls of people from all over the world, and from the most different backgrounds and has inspired across the centuries great artists of all disciplines: from painters to poets, from musicians to singers to Hollywood directors, but nothing makes it as real and as touching and incredibly contemporary as its original oral storytelling form. Result of a wide and accurate historical and artistic research, the performance is based on the tradition of “Sacra Rappresentazione”, the most established storytelling tradition of Medieval Italy and aims to give back to a modern audience a story that was told for thousand of years before ever being written and collected in a collection of tales of unmatched fame: the Bible.
Paola Balbi and Davide Bardi bring this old tale back to life through their improvised creative storytelling, giving it back to their audience with all its mythical power but also with its moving human breath. They hand over to David and Bathsheba their bodies, voices, emotions and words and everyone in the audience will feel as if spying the great king and his lover from right behind the curtain of their bedroom, and touching their very hearts.