AGAP Archives

2023

Crawling back from the difficulties posed to live events by the Pandemic, the year 2023 would turn out to be a landmark victory for AGAP with a hugely successful touring theatre production, “Oggie! Oggie! Oggie!”, that attracted great reviews from audiences and critics. The play was a modern re-telling of the Confessions of Saint Augustine and was written and performed by AGAP Director, Stephen Callaghan.

“Oggie! Oggie! Oggie!” premiered at the Archdiocese Curial Offices in Lent 2023 and then embarked on a national tour, taking in venues in every Scottish Diocese from Glasgow to the Highlands.  It was performed for five evenings at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and attracted strong reviews from the Derek Awards (4.5 stars), Mumble Theatre Review (5 stars) and Broadway Baby (3 stars).   It then visited several secondary schools and had more public performances than any previous AGAP theatre Production.

 

Enquiries about performances have come from as far as Adelaide, Australia, Warsaw, Poland and other parts of the UK. Many expressed an interest in the play reaching university students, prisoners, young offenders and those in drug or alcohol rehabilitation. Such is the appeal of Saint Augustine’s raw account of his journey to God from a life of hedonism and intellectual grappling. 

This appeal was far from limited to Catholic audiences.  “Oggie!” attracted significant audience numbers from other Christian denominations, including Episcopalian and Presbyterian church-goers, as well as non-church-goers, with invitations to bring the play to these other churches as well.

 

After each performance, Stephen Callaghan would meet the audience face-to-face for a Q&A.  These post-show chats,  facilitated the testimonies of so many people after each performance.  People young and old had the courage to share their stories, inspired by this updated 4th Century tale of conversion.  Sometimes these conversations happen publicly during the Q & A after the show, but often they would take place privately, in stolen moments whilst clearing up at the end, with people in tears as they related to the story that they had just heard. Sometimes, people were challenged by the story or had questions about their faith or issues with the Church. The play initiated a dialogue.

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