Never was the name of a theatre company more relevant than ‘Creation’ in this instance. And rarely can a second choice venue for a new drama have been more apt. Two years ago, Creation realised that this year marks the 400th anniversary of the first publication of the King James Bible: what to do and how to do it?

And the answer came: devise an 80-minute script for a pair of deft actors which might show off the beauty of the language in the telling of some of the great biblical stories in an entirely innovative way, and find a proper space to present the results. Part One: straightforward — let performers Tom Peters and Raewyn Lippert loose with director Helen Tennison to develop a show that carries no heavy religious baggage but gives the audience a chance to rejoice in a stunning presentation of the fables.

Part Two: less simple — the company had intended to use another setting when, literally, its roof fell in. Casting around, they chanced upon St. Barnabas Church in Jericho, and they must have felt that this was meant to be!

The church is a director’s dream for such a show: there is a huge space before the altar which is used to marvellous effect as Peters and Lippert enact versions of everything from the Garden of Eden to Calvary, by way of Cain and Abel and Jonah. They are two powerful presences, delivering the words of the King James Bible with due passion as called for, and then sliding smoothly into occasional, cleverly placed, revue routine: “Oh I do like to be beside the Red Sea-side”, or “I’m going down below deck to find Jonah — there’s something fishy about that lad!”

Tales From King James is inventive, performed with remarkable brio and is an example of that cleverest of theatrical endeavours: having a bright idea, balancing the delivery of the text between serious and accessible, and trading on the magnificence of your surroundings.