Local Acts Wow In Stage Play: “When Eden Blooms Again

By Em Fergusson

An impressive cast of actors assembled from the Seventh Day Adventist denomination, in both Macon and Atlanta, Georgia, to wow a large audience. The play took place in Atlanta at the Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church. The cast’s performance in the gospel stage play “When Eden Blooms Again,” was welcomed by all who attended the event. The play explores how beautiful the Garden of Eden was in the beginning and how the world was changed by one event.

"The storybegins with a scene from the biblical Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had everything at their disposal; they conversed freely with God, and partook in the richness of Eden. The actors portrayed how beautiful and plentiful the Garden was before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, changing the course of life completely.

The transition in the play takes place to portray how the world is viewed today and how it will change once Christ returns. When Adam and Eve fail to obey God and refrain from the Garden of Eden, challenges begin. From the beginning, families are torn apart. The play portrays a modern day husband and his wife who are not communicating. Their daughter has begun to fail her high school classes and dates drug addicts and thugs. They also begin to argue about their relationship while everything seems to fall apart.

Beneath the surface are anecdotes and biblical quotes emphasizing faith values. The wife arguing with her husband is aware she has reacted wrongly towards her husband and daughter, and cries out to God for help. This is the effect playwright and director, Lorraine Lynch desired to portray.

She shares how she came to write the play and talked briefly about its meaning. “I decided [one day] that I needed to talk to God more...” she said. “I found that I wanted to be closer to Him and the only way I knew how to do that was to go to the source...Read the Bible and listen for Him speaking.”

The moment of inspiration came to her when she went through the word of God. “It blew my mind what happens when you meditate on the Word and are open to the Spirit of God leading you through it,” she said. “I literally saw in my mind as I read each word, each line, each paragraph...God painting our world and then creating and placing Adam and Eve in it.”