Scripture Untangled

Season 12: Episode 3 | Murray Watts: Bringing Scripture to Stage and Screen

You can also watch on YouTube, listen to and/or subscribe/follow Scripture Untangled on: Apple, Spotify and iHeartRadio.

Explore more Scripture Untangled episodes.

In this episode, Murray and Lorna discuss:

• Murray’s life as an award-winning playwright, whose life’s work brings Scripture to the stage and screen.
• His play, The Beloved Son, inspired by writer Henry Nouwen’s longing for affirmation and divine identity.
• How the arts help people sense the vast and personal love of God—even those unsure that they believe.
• Why Christians need the arts to become fully human, not merely more religious.
• How plays and films allow us to grieve, hope, and tell the truth we struggle to voice in church.
• How Scripture invites believers to feel God’s love, not merely understand it intellectually.
• How Biblical wisdom affirms play, creativity, and joy as part of faithful living.

Murray Watts is best known as a playwright and screenwriter. His work as a writer in TV, radio, film and theatre has won awards and received critical acclaim.

He is the writer of many screenplays which include The Dream, starring Jeremy Irons (BBC 2) and the feature film The Miracle Maker (BBC/S4C/ICON), which was released to international acclaim in 2000 and was ABC network’s highest rated movie for Easter 2000/1. He was the screenwriter for KJB – The Book That Changed the World (1A PRODUCTIONS/DISCOVERY CHANNEL/BBC SCOTLAND). KJB was awarded the Movie Guide Epiphany Prize for the most inspirational Programme on US TV in 2011.

He has also written and directed many plays over the last 40 years, including the award-winning The Fatherland for Bush Theatre in 1989 (which he later adapted as The Monday Play for BBC Radio 4). The King’s Head Theatre in London staged a season of four of his plays throughout January 2012, including Mr. Darwin’s Tree. Mr. Darwin’s Tree was originally commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and was premiered in Westminster Abbey. The play has been performed in many countries, including China, South Korea, and throughout the US.

He is currently the screenwriter for several feature films in development, including Power and Glory, a film about Michael Faraday.

Murray Watts is the founder and director of The Wayfarer Trust, an international arts charity offering support and encouragement to people in the world of arts and media (wayfarertrust.org). He lives at Freswick Castle in the far north of Scotland, which is a haven for visiting artists from around the world (freswickcastle.com)

Website: murraywatts.co.uk/

Lorna Dueck has explored the intersection of journalism and Christianity for over 30 years. Her most recent full-time role was as CEO of Crossroads Christian Communications, Inc. and the show, “Context with Lorna Dueck”.

Lorna was a regular commentary writer on faith and public life in Canada’s leading national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, and is a frequent media commentator. She has travelled the world reporting on church-led response to humanitarian crisis.

Lorna earned a Master of Arts in Evangelism and Leadership from Wheaton College. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Trinity, Tyndale, Briercrest and Wycliffe Universities. Lorna has received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canadian society.

Learn more about Lorna Dueck:

Instagram: instagram.com/lornadueck
Website: lornadueckcreative.com