In case you don’t know this about me, I am a believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the same God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to offer you and me salvation through His Blood. He is also the same God who Daniel the prophet served while at the same time serving the kings of Babylon. I believe that the story of Daniel, as told in the Bible is true in every word, that Daniel the prophet did indeed live and breathe and experience the challenges and dangers of balancing obedience to sinful men with devotion to his Higher Authority. Sight & Sound Productions brings the narrative of Daniel alive again in a way that is emotional, inspiring and provocative.

Sight & Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA is running this show through the rest of this year with its full-time staff of actors, stage crew, musicians and everyone in between. Somehow, this stage play has managed to condense all twelve chapters of the book of Daniel, roughly 70 years of Daniel’s life, into a 2 1/2-hour show. And they’ve done it brilliantly! “It was like a thousand-piece puzzle,” says Director Jeff Bender, describing the process as “just sort of putting the pieces together to find that through line…”

According to Bender, Daniel is easily the “most technically integrated” production they’ve ever done. That was easy to believe as we experienced this fully immersive show that conveys the story through every medium imaginable. For example, the use of visuals on LED screens, combined with clever lighting, special effects and moving multi-level sets on a 300-foot wrap-around stage put us inside the action from beginning to end as everything in the story was coming at us, around us and over us. We’re talking floating statues suspended from the ceiling, holographic visuals flying over us, animatronic dragons that appeared to be threatening our lives… and live animals!

As a further mark of the immersive nature of this production, we were urged to stay in our seats as the show began, as the isles became part of the stage. Not only were there actors marching down the isles to the front, but some of them were leading sheep, goats, pigs, alpacas and camels back and forth. And some were riding horses!

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the same thing I was thinking, about how the cast and crew might handle the unattractive, yet inevitable occurrence of “items” being left on the stage by the animals. My question was swiftly answered when a horse did just that, and a stagehand in costume came out with a broom and shovel as the scene was ending and actors and animals were leaving the stage and transitioning to the next scene. It was as if the “scooper” was part of the show!

During the show, there was also a scene in which real live doves were released to fly over the crowd. I was impressed by the fact that these birds flew out a ways, but all returned to a specific place. Not sure how they accomplished that, but it was impressive. Equally impressive were the hand painted sets, the superb live orchestral soundtrack, and the character in one scene who was really spinning real fire!

But the real power in this production of Daniel is the story. It’s an exceptional representation of the real narrative of the book of Daniel. The “heart of the story,” according to lead show producer Kristen Brewer is Daniel’s demonstration of “how to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven while living in the Kingdom of Babylon.” From the destruction of Jerusalem to the trial of Daniel’s friends through the fiery furnace, to his own experience in the lions’ den, the moral of the story, conveyed proficiently in this production is that God alone is worthy of your worship. He alone in the form of Jesus was the fourth man in the fire and He alone was the one who calmed the lions. Never let anything else compete for your worship!  

Through Sight & Sound’s production of Daniel, the point of his message is seen and heard loud and clear: While there are times when God will choose to rescue us from the lions, that’s not always the case. Sometimes God chooses to allow the Jerusalems of our lives to be destroyed in order to prove us, and then to prove Himself by rebuilding them again. Indeed, there are times when it serves God’s purposes best to allow us to go through the fire, but He will ALWAYS be there to walk through that fire with us.

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Images and information for this article courtesy of https://www.sight-sound.com/shows/lancaster/daniel/2024. Details and tickets are also available at this link. Additional information for this review courtesy of https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/sight-sounds-daniel-cast-share-their-hopes-for-production.html