Pilgrim's Progress

Dramatizations, music, and film

  • In 1850, a moving panorama of Pilgrim's Progress, known as the Bunyan Tableuax or the Grand Moving Panorama of Pilgrim's Progress was painted by Joseph Kyle and Edward Harrison May and displayed in New York; an early copy of this panorama survives and is at the Saco Museum in Maine.
  • The novel was made into a film, Pilgrim's Progress, in 1912.
  • In 1950 an hour-long animated version was made by Baptista Films. This version was edited down to 35 minutes and re-released with new music in 1978. As of 2007 the original version is difficult to find, but the 1978 version has been released on both VHS and DVD.[72]
  • In 1951 the first performance of the opera The Pilgrim's Progress, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
  • In 1978, another film version was made by Ken Anderson, in which Liam Neeson, in his film debut, played the role of the Evangelist[73] and also appeared as the crucified Christ.[74] Maurice O'Callaghan played Appolyon and Worldly Wiseman,[75] and Peter Thomas played The Pilgrim/Christian.[76][75] A sequel, Christiana, followed later.[77]
  • In 1978 a musical based loosely on Bunyan's characters and the story was written by Nick Taylor and Alex Learmont. The musical [originally titled Pilgrim] was produced for the Natal Performing Arts Council under the title "Christian!" or Follow the Man with the Big Bass Drum in the Holy Glory Band, and ran to capacity houses for the 1979/80 summer season in Durban's Old Alhambra Theatre. The show moved to Johannesburg in March 1980 and ran for a further three months at His Majesty's Theatre. After a substantial re-write Christian! was again mounted at the new Playhouse in Durban for the 1984 Christmas season. The musical has been performed many times since by schools and amateur theatrical groups in South Africa. After 30 years the show is again attracting attention both locally and abroad and the score and libretto are being updated and made more flexible for large and small productions.[78]
  • In 1985 Yorkshire Television produced a 129-minute nine-part serial presentation of The Pilgrim's Progress with animated stills by Alan Parry and narrated by Paul Copley entitled Dangerous Journey.
  • In 1988, Glenn Danzig and Danzig (band) released their controversial music video from their song "Mother" which included the quote "Then I saw there was a way to Hell from the gates of Heaven" in the beginning of the music video from The Pilgrim's Progress.
  • In 1989, Orion's Gate, a producer of Biblical / Spiritual audio dramas produced The Pilgrim's Progress as a six-hour audio dramatization.[79] This production was followed several years later by Christiana: Pilgrim's Progress, Part II, another 8 hour audio dramatization.
  • In 1989, The Ocean Blue released The Ocean Blue which includes the song "Vanity Fair" which includes lyrics that reference The Pilgrim's Progress.
  • In 1993, the popular Christian radio drama, Adventures in Odyssey (produced by Focus on the Family), featured a two-part story, titled "Pilgrim's Progress: Revisited." This two-parter was written and directed by Phil Lollar.
  • The 1993 video game Doom features a map called "Slough of Despair" (E3M2: episode 3, map 2).
  • In the 1990s Kurt and Keith Landaas, composed, directed and performed a compelling stage two-act modern rock opera adaptation of Pilgrims Progress. It involved five principal characters and a cast choral of about 20 members. It was performed in the Lambs theatre in NYC in 1994 and other tri-state venues. A studio recording was also produced and distributed.
  • In 1994, The Pilgrim's Progress and the imprisonment of John Bunyan were the subject of the musical Celestial City[80] by David MacAdam, with John Curtis, and an album was released in 1997.
  • In 2003 the game Heaven Bound was released by Emerald Studios. The 3D adventure-style game, based on the novel, was only released for the PC.[81]
  • Five Nights at Freddy's developer Scott Cawthon directed and narrated a 2005 computer animation version of the book, and also produced a video game adaptation.
  • In 2008, a film version by Danny Carrales, Pilgrim's Progress: Journey to Heaven, was produced. It received one nomination for best feature length independent film and one nomination for best music score at the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
  • British music band Kula Shaker released an album called Pilgrim's Progress on 28 June 2010.
  • In 2003 Michael W. Smith wrote a song, called "Signs", which he says on his A 20 Year Celebration live DVD to be inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress.
  • Jim Winder (www.Jim-Winder.com) performs a live telling of Pilgrim's Progress (the first part) with contemporary Christian songs based on the story line and Biblical content.[82]
  • Season 7, episode 16 of Family Guy (17 May 2009) is a parody of The Pilgrim's Progress called "Peter's Progress."
  • In 2010, FishFlix.com released A Pilgrim's Progress – The Story of John Bunyan, a DVD documentary about Bunyan's life narrated by Derick Bingham, filmed on location in England.[83]
  • In 2010, writer / director Andrew Wiest directed The Adventures of Chris Fable (aka The Wylds) bringing John Bunyan's novel The Pilgrim's Progress to life on the screen with this family friendly fantasy adventure about a young runaway on a quest to find his long lost father. The movie was released on video and streaming in 2012.
  • In 2013, Puritan Productions[84] company announced the premiere of its dramatization with ballet & chorus accompaniment in Fort Worth, Texas at the W.E. Scott Theatre[85] on 18–19 October 2013. Subsequent productions by the same company in Garland, Texas at the Granville Arts Center on 24–26 October 2014, and in Austin, Texas, accompanied by ballet & chorus, at Park Hills Baptist Church on 4–5 November 2016.
  • In 2014, a Kickstarter-supported novel called The Narrow Road was published. It is based on The Pilgrim's Progress, and was written by Erik Yeager and illustrated by Dave dela Gardelle.
  • The 2015 Terrence Malick film Knight of Cups was inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress.
  • In March 2015, director Darren Wilson announced a Kickstarter campaign to produce a full-length feature film based on The Pilgrims Progress called Heaven Quest: A Pilgrim's Progress Movie.[86]
  • The Neal Morse Band released their 2nd album titled The Similitude of a Dream on 11 November 2016, a 2 CD concept album based on the book The Pilgrim's Progress. On 25 January 2019, a follow-up 2 CD album, The Great Adventure, was released to continue re-telling the story from the perspective of Christian's son.
  • In 2019 a computer-animated film adaptation titled The Pilgrim's Progress was released and featured the voice of John Rhys-Davies.[87]
  • The allegory was adapted into a dramatic, serialized podcast, High and Silver Presents: The Pilgrim's Progress, in 2022.
  • The album Odyssey to the West by progressive metal deathcore band Slice the Cake is loosely inspired by The Pilgrim's Progress, and includes a track named after the novel.

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