Sister Mary explains it all in Ten Bucks production

BREWER – Sister Mary Ignatius has an answer for everything. She tends to skip over why God allows evil in the world, but the nun can explain everything else in Ten Bucks Theatre Company’s production of the dark comedy “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.”

The current sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church adds some bite to the one-act production, which opened Friday at the Brewer Middle School. Playwright Christopher Durang’s one-act play was first performed in 1981. Outraged Catholics picketed the production in St. Louis and other large cities because of its caustic take on church dogma and the Catholic education system.

Born in 1949, Durang was part of the last generation to learn catechetics from the venerable Baltimore Catechism, which taught church doctrine in a question-and-answer form. Religious education changed dramatically after Vatican II in the mid-1960s. Middle-aged Catholics who haven’t attended Mass in decades still can recite the answers to questions such as, “Why did God make you?”

Julie Arnold Lisnet stars as the nun in her third production of the play. Sister speaks directly to the audience, lecturing on church doctrine with the help of Thomas, one of her best-behaved students. Her lecture is interrupted by former students, who perform a hysterical Christmas pageant. Then, one by one, they challenge the church’s teachings on sexuality and abortion as well as the nun’s draconian teaching methods.

Lisnet is excellent as the inhumane nun. Her Sister Mary Ignatius is the embodiment of every horror story ever told by former Catholic school children. Lisnet’s portrayal garners no sympathy even when the nun loses control of the situation toward the end of the play. The actress gives a multilayered performance but sticks to Durang’s merciless “nunzilla” portrait of the sister.

Nate Leland, Rachael Weinstein, Amanda Eaton and Kenny Volock play the nun’s former students who return to confront her and flaunt their disobedience to church doctrine. The four actors shine in the Christmas pageant sequence that captures the skewed vision of Christianity children sometimes convey to adults.

Their confrontation scenes with Lisnet, however, lack the subtlety and nuance Durang’s didactic dialogue demands. While Sister Mary Ignatius’ students may have lost their ways momentarily, they tenaciously cling to the remnants of their faith. That, however, is not always obvious from their one-note performances.

Isaac Mitchell is delightful as Thomas, Sister’s angelic assistant. He captures the sickly sweet air of superiority that embodies all teacher’s pets, yet he also emits a pure spirituality only children seem able to capture.

In his directorial debut, Allen Adams succeeds beautifully in pacing the production, although the play is better suited to a more intimate setting than the middle school auditorium allows. Adams has a gift for comic timing, but needs to help his younger actors give depth to their characters.

While younger audience members will embrace the play’s absurd humor, they probably will not squirm as uncomfortably as their parents might when Sister Mary Ignatius rapidly fires off her Baltimore Catechism inquiries. With the painful priest abuse scandal showing no signs of abating, it is good to laugh at Durang’s outrageous irreverent ode to his Catholic schoolboy days.

“Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You” will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Brewer Middle School. For tickets, call 990-4940.