Lambeth Fringe Interview: The Third Coming of Jesus Christ

In Out of Place Theatre’s The Third Coming of Jesus Christ, the last man alive is adrift at sea, and Cain gets a second chance through three visits from Christ, with the devil lurking. Ahead of its Lambeth Fringe performance, writer and performer Karol Stanisz spoke to Red Bus Londinium about why he thinks the deck was stacked against Cain, and how staging plays with friends in Warsaw led him onto the stage alongside his own script.

Red Bus: Cain and Abel is one of the oldest stories we have, and plenty of people think they know how it ends. What made you want to give Cain a second chance, and did you find yourself sympathising with him more than you expected?

Karol Stanisz: I do think that the way God treats Cain in the original story is inherently unfair. The deck is stacked against him. The way I understand the story, Cain is judged by the metric of what his brother could offer, not by how much effort he put in himself. While writing it was easy to sympathise with someone who’s doomed to fail despite his best efforts. I wanted to explore the idea that under the right (or very wrong) circumstances anyone could be driven to do what Cain does.

Red Bus: You wrote the play and you also appear in it as Gabriel. Did you write that part with yourself in mind, or did it arrive in rehearsals? I’d love to know whether being inside the play changes how you see the writing.

Karol Stanisz: I try to uncover the story first and foremost and stay clear of casting choices while writing. Initially I didn’t intend to star in the play at all. But during preproduction I watched Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet and found myself captivated by the image of the playwright listening in the wings to the words of the play. It reminded me of how my journey with theatre began, when I would write and stage plays with my friends at the House of Culture in Warsaw. I’m a performer at heart and want to be there in the trenches, so to speak, with my fellow actors.

Red Bus: Absurdist comedy and religious material can be a risky mix for some audiences. Was there a point in drafting where you worried about where the line sat, and how do you hope a Lambeth Fringe audience will take it, whether they have faith or none?

Karol Stanisz: It’s hard to say until you put the material in front of a live audience. I find the fringe crowd delightfully supportive but also intelligent, sharp and critical. If a line is crossed they’ll tell us, but I suspect the writing could be even bolder. It remains to be seen.

Red Bus: The play runs at 45 minutes and promises fast pace and slapstick. How did that length shape the structure, and what did you have to cut to keep Cain adrift at sea without the story overstaying its welcome?

Karol Stanisz: It was actually the writing that informed the pace of the piece. From the play’s inception the characters spoke in this punchy, contemporary style which I wanted to keep. It asks a lot of the actors to keep the pace but is very satisfying to watch and listen to. The dialogue flies at breakneck speed. I took a page out of classic pressure-cooker style plays like Blackbird by David Horrower, Now or Later by Christopher Shinn and Endgame by Samuel Beckett. The challenge is to keep the ball up in the air, and have the audience engaged the whole time. Which meant for me as the writer to keep in mind first and foremost the intentions of the characters.

Red Bus: Ciara Cogley has written the music and Habil Yaldaz is working as intimacy director. How have those two elements shaped the tone of the production, and what has surprised you most about seeing the script come off the page with this team?

Karol Stanisz: They’re both incredibly talented artists and I love collaborating with them. My approach is to always let the creative have a go at it from their perspective and then we tweak things if they require it. More often than not I find that other people bring something to the table that I never thought about and that surprises me in the best way. If you pick the right team they’ll already intuit the tone of the piece, so my job is just to not get in the way of their creativity and offer guidance if necessary.

BOOKING DETAILS

Sunday 18 October 2026, 7pm
Golden Goose Theatre, near Oval Tube, presented as part of Lambeth Fringe 2026
Running time: 50 minutes
Booking: https://lambethfringe.com/events/the-third-coming-of-jesus-christ

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