rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (09/17/84)
For netters who come to Boston: If you've ever attended parochial school or been curious about the exper- ience, try to catch the American Repertory Theater production of Christo- pher Durang's SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU at the Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton Street, Boston (617-426-6912), starting today, September 17. The play features Tony-nominee Elizabeth Franz in the title role she made famous during the original NY production in 1981. A group calling itself the Anti-Defamation Committee of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights [sic.] (I kid you not!) is protesting the run. The play has been harassed by the RCC across the country: in St. Louis the company was forced out of one playhouse into another; in Detroit the archdiocese threatened to block production and rather hysterically labeled the play "virulently anti- Catholic". The Boston Catholic group has fatuously tried to enlist B'nai B'rith in its banning attempt. Drama critic Kevin Kelly devotes his column to the matter in today's (9/17/84) BOSTON GLOBE. And all this denunciation of the stage from a church whose head (Karel Wojtyla) is a former playright!
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (09/18/84)
Incidentally, I managed to see "Sister Mary Ignatius" two weeks ago when I was
in S.F., with Cloris Leachman in the title role. All in all, this is a
wonderfully funny but disturbing play, and required viewing for anyone who
enjoyed a Catholic education. It is hardly anti-Catholic; but it IS a
send-up of your typical parochial school nun of the 50's and early 60's.
Perhaps these Catholic "anti-defamation" leagues are worried that the truth
(and 90% of Durang's dialogue could be taken VERBATIM out of my early classroom
years) is simply too embarassing.
I would be interested to know how the play comes across to non-Catholics,
not to mention non-Christians: a lot of the humor comes from this feeling
of shared experience.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA