A Modern Nativity in Covent Garden

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29 November 2011 by Loma-Ann Marks

Every year, there’s comment and cry that Christmas has become too commercial.
So discovering the essence of the season, with a modern twist, amongst the retail bustle of Covent Garden is a joy, and a welcome reminder that Christmas is about more than presents and mulled wine.

On the west piazza next to a giant reindeer and Paperchase, and housed in a wooden, chapel -style pavilion is director Martha Fiennes‘ mesmerising film of the nativity scene.

Working with the Moving Picture Company ( who did the post production on X-Men and Pirates of the Caribbean ) specialist, basement software company Existential and her own company SLOimage she uses ground-breaking digital technology and live actors to create a tableau of 13 characters including Mary cradling the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, angels and the wise men, who all subtly animate.

The effect of this contemporary crib scene is that it ‘breathes.’ There’s constant, slow movement : Mary crosses her leg here, the wise men kneel there, the little angels clap their hands. The background mutates from disused petrol station, to chapel, to slums against snow, sunshine or starlight.

It’s a captivating fusion of technology and tradition. The computer randomly chooses which characters and background appear together, meaning that the film is a constantly evolving, organic artwork - and is never the same twice.

Rather like the Christmas story, Fiennes’ Nativity is a jewel of calm, giving a moment to contemplate on something that is, whatever your belief, bigger and brighter than the sum of its parts.

The Nativity, Covent Garden Piazza, London, 11am – 8pm every day, until January 2nd. Free.

About the author

Loma-Ann Marks
Loma was a performer and freelance writer before becoming a journalist on the Daily Star Sunday, Daily Star and Express. She's the Founder and Editor of Culture Compass. North, South, East or West? I'll go anywhere. I like to think that I'm a pretty good map reader ( not everyone would agree ) but then I remind them that I navigated my way around the Paris one-way system with NO mistakes. High Class or Common or Garden? High class in the garden. Clothes or Culture? Culture in new clothes. My best night out ever made me feel....... That things would never be the same again. And they surely weren't the following day.

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