GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS RAISED BY THREE ON THE SEESAW

WWJP (What would Jesus produce?)

If you look at Jesus’ parables, you will often find at the end of the parable one or both of these things- a question or people left questioning.  For example, one of the most recognized of Jesus’ parables is the Samaritan story, which ends with Jesus asking a question- “Which of these three men do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  Jesus could have revealed the Truth at the end of his story.  Instead he forced his audience to answer a question that would expose their hearts and reveal the Truth.  We find Jesus frequently answering questions with questions.  Or he will ask rhetorical questions…ones that surely he knows the answer, but he wants his question to land on the hearer, penetrate their heart and force them to confront a truth.  Jesus also wasn’t afraid to let his audience leave asking questions.  Often his own disciples had to pull him aside and asked him what the parable meant.  Jesus obviously wanted his audiences to walk away and chew on and work at digesting the bread of life that he was offering (“let he who has ears to hear, let him hear”).  

If I was to pattern Art Within’s productions in the story-telling style of Jesus, I would want to deliver penetrating Truth, but I would want it to be asked in the form of a question.  I would leave enough ambiguity and complexity for the audience to have to work at understanding the meaning.  I would send them out of the theater wanting to talk to someone about what they just heard and saw.  Well, this is how I would describe THREE ON THE SEESAW.

THREE ON THE SEESAW begins with a question and ends with a question.  It’s an important question- “Is anybody there?”  It might seem like a simple question with a simple answer, but for the three characters in this comedy, it becomes a matter of life and death.  And, because these characters think they have possibly crossed over from life to death, there are a lot more questions that the play brings to the surface.  Below is a list of questions for you to chew on or for you to talk about with someone you saw the play with.  While I do not believe the play offers any one person who represents the Truth, I believe that, just like Jesus’ parables, once you allow the questions to penetrate your heart, you can’t help but be confronted with what you truly believe and want to seek out the Truth.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1)    Mr. A- “Hello?  Is anybody there?”-  This question begins and ends the play.  Ironically, this play was written by an atheist.  He, obviously, is asking a very personal question through this play.  Do you really believe that someone is there?  How “there” are they?  Do they know the number of hairs on your head or are they just up in the heavens watching the planets go around?  Are they there in the tragedies as well as the miracles?  Will there be anybody there when you die?  Who will be there?

2)    The sergeant, the professor and the businessman all think they are at the right address and they think the other is wrong.  Can three people have three different views on Truth and it still be Truth?  How can three viewpoints be right, have contradictions and still be Truth?  For example, could Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all be right in giving an account of Jesus’ life and yet there be contradictions in their accounts?

3)    Is there such a thing as absolute Truth?  If you believe so, what is Truth?

4)    What is the significance of the number three in the play? (i.e.- Three doors, Three Men, Three Addresses, etc.).  The sergeant makes reference to the trinity (i.e.- God, Holy Spirit and Jesus all being one yet separate).  The trinity is a big stumbling block for Muslims, who equate the trinity with Christians having multiple gods.  Can God be three views and yet still be one?  Does your view of the trinity coincide or contradict your view of Truth? 

5)    The businessman gets tremendously fearful in response to the odd occurrences with the doors and the refrigerator.  How do you respond to the unexplainable?

6)    The professor rationalizes away all of the “miracles” or “coincidences” in the room with his intellect.  What do you think of miracles?  Do they still happen?  Many scholars disqualify parts of the Bible because they involve the supernatural.  What parts of the Bible are hard for you to believe?  Are there rational explanations for them?

7)    The businessman responds to the professor’s explanation of the mysteries that have happened by asking, “Do you find it [the professor’s explanation] credible?”  What is the difference between possible and probable?  Is the professor’s explanation possible or probable from your viewpoint?  Do you find the supernatural in the Bible, possible or probable?  Do you find the opposing view that is more rationally explained, possible or probable?

8)    The professor says “it is better never to say whether something is good or bad.”  He, then, tells the story of the lucky and unlucky events with the sale of a house.  What do you believe about interpreting events as bad or good?  The weather that caused a heat wave across one section of the country could result in mudslides in another.  Is it possible that when we thank God for his goodness for an event that someone else could be cursing him for that same event?  How do you reconcile this?

9)    The sergeant tells the long joke and the businessman responds to it by saying “Can't you see, it's tragic!  It means that we don’t mean anything, we don't exist! It isn't at all important whether we are here or not.”   Is your existence meaningful to God?  If so, in what way?

10)  The businessman believes that possibly what the three men are experiencing is how death works and that maybe this is the anteroom to the hereafter.  How do you envision death working?  Do you believe in a holding room?  Do you believe that people have an opportunity to change their beliefs or acquire faith after they die?

11)  The businessman also believes that the next step is for them to be judged by God.  Do you believe in a judgment?  If you do, what happens at this judgment?

12) The sergeant responds to the idea of judgment by expounding a logic that says if God wanted more out of me then he should have made me different.  The sergeant believes that God cannot judge us because He made us the way we are.  As the sergeant states, “If a poor devil on this Earth kills his wife, whose fault is it? It is a leaf that's fallen the wrong way! And who makes the leaves fall?”  Are we responsible for our actions before God?  Where is the line between how we are created and the choices we make?  Did God create Hitler and Stalin the way they were?  How does this question filter into cultural and theological debates on issues such as homosexuality? 

13)  After the arrival of the charlady, the three men begin espousing their faith or lack of: 

MR. A -  Anyway, since you're interested, I'm not in the least religious; I'm not even a believer, I'm an agnostic -  in fact, I'm an atheist. (Pause) But... that's under normal conditions, during the day...And anyway, I always thought you could change your mind...perhaps with age...

SGT. B -  I've always said that it's better to believe in God, even to new recruits. After all, it doesn't cost anything!...

PROF. C -  I have to confess that, as a modern man of a modern scientific world...  I  don't feel God's presence in history. One would expect to detect a design in history, and even in everyday life. The good are praised, the bad punished...But it's not like that.

MR. A -  Quite the contrary.

PROF. C -  No, not even the contrary: because even the opposite would amount to a design! No! You can commit the worst crimes and the dirtiest low-down tricks, and it can turn out badly just as well as it can turn out right...You can be the most upright of people, and it's the same: You can be tormented by disaster or live your life without any suffering.

What do you think of the three men’s points of view?  Is there any truth in their statements?  Can you change your mind?  Does it cost to believe in God?  Do you detect a design that points to God’s presence? When bad things happen to good people, does it cause you to doubt in God or His providence?  What happens to the three men’s points of view when they start confessing to the charlady?

14)   The professor makes up a gospel passage to demonstrate that a phrase placed in the right context can be taken as truth, even though it might have been stated for other reasons.  Critics of the Bible believe that modern Christians have taken letters and writings of men, assembled them into a book and placed them into the context of God’s word.  What do you think of this?  What is the place of “context” in understanding the Bible?

15)   What is the significance of how the play ends?  What do you think happens next?  What is the significance of the doors and the phone? As the businessman asks prior to the ending- “What does it all mean?” Is this a play “told by an idiot signifying nothing?” Did this play, much like the three men, force you to wrestle with the meaningful questions of life? 

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S ESSAY ON THE PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF "DOORS" IN 

THREE ON THE SEESAW