What we have gained in Logic we have lost in Faith
Under the direction of the Artistic Director Hjalmer Anderson, Heart Repertory Theatre just opened the Broadway hit, Agnes of God by John Pielmeir at the Sammamish Valley Grange.
This thought-provoking, suspenseful production proves to be as big a hit in Woodinville as it was on Broadway. It questions legal, psychiatric, religious and existential certainties, exposing moral ambiguities using an extremely zippy, dramatic dialogue, which was full of humor and wit.
The morally ambiguous conflicts are personified by two strong-willed women. A court appointed female psychiatrist, Dr. Martha Livingstone visits a Catholic convent (of a contemplative order) to make a psychiatric assessment of Agnes a young novice (an apprentice nun who has not taken her final vows) who has been accused of murdering her new born baby. Her name is significant as Agnes of Rome is the patron Saint of Chastity and Virginity, who is usually depicted with a lamb, so Agnes of God, is much like the sacrificial Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God.
Dr. Livingstone, a woman with justifiable resentment towards the Catholic church, jousts with the Mother Superior of the convent Mother Miriam Ruth, an older no-nonsense, equally strong-willed woman. In an era before anti-depressants, before psycho-analysis and Freud were discredited and significantly before Oprah, Dr. Livingstone wants to delve into the psyche of Agnes; Mother Miriam wants to leave well-enough alone. The two verbally duke it out.
Agnes is a pretty young novice with a beautiful voice, who appeared to be on the autism spectrum or suffering from severe PTSD or schizophrenia or all of the above. The Mother Superior is hiding a lot, Dr. Livingstone suspects the worst. In short there is a huge amount of mystery and suspense without being a classic whodunit.
It is significant that the Convent where Agnes of God takes place is an old-style contemplative order of nuns, as opposed to the traditional teaching and nursing orders, or the modern orders, who are social workers or social justice activists working in prisons. The Contemplative orders, which still exist, are completely “cloistered” that is to say, they spend their whole lives physically inside the convent, never going out into the world. Their lives are restricted to either doing chores or in prayer and contemplating God. Unlike modern nuns, who wear jeans, they still wear pre-Vatican II black habits with veils.
In some ways, the setting for exposing the moral ambiguities, is dated, as it was written in 1978, since it takes place in a Catholic convent before the big sexual abuse scandals of the 2000’s. Also the author, John Pielmeier, born in 1949, a Catholic, experienced old-style Catholicism in his formative years in the 1950’s before Vatican II. Those who were raised Catholic after the liberalizing Vatican II experienced something different. But surprisingly this play is just as relevant today as it was in 1979.
Although the audience has a lot of sympathy for Dr. Livingstone’s methods at first, there is a twist in the end, and along the way, a lot of Agnes’s childhood history was revealed, which would have been shocking in 1979 and in the early 1980’s, but which we now see on day-time talk shows and in the newspapers all the time.
Everything about this production was spot on. As the audience was waiting for the show to start, there was eerie vespers music and we feasted on some replicas of religiously-themed stained glass windows by Molly West the Set Designer. The set representing the convent office of the Mother Superior, was “Convent Authentic” complete with a roll-top desk and fancy porcelain tea-cups for entertaining guests.
The actors were more than up to the task to bring this challenging script to life. Jeanine Early as Mother Miriam Ruth, had excellent comic and dramatic timing and portrayed someone who was both hard-boiled and incredibly compassionate.
BriAnne Green as Dr. Martha Livingstone, portrayed the strong willed believer in psychiatry, who is assured that she is doing the right thing, only to discover that knowing what is the right thing is, is not as easy as she thought.
As Agnes, Alyssa Gaudinier expressed a full range of powerful emotions to the audience, vulnerability, other-worldiness as well as paranoia but was in fact extremely endearing.
A script like this, which is so very dialogue-driven demanded a very delicate touch, and director Hjalmer Anderson had just the right touch. The audience was engaged the whole time, it was suspenseful, stimulating and full of compassion. Also, he used the space well, the scene changes were swift, since he just laid out each different room, where the play takes place, in a long rectangle at the Sammamish Valley Grange.
I recommend this play to everyone, it isn’t often such a superb script comes to the Seattle area and is so well done.
I would only say that Woodinville is no longer the sleepy town I first encountered 35 years ago, when I first moved to this area, when Microsoft was three buildings in the middle of a forest. It is time for the city to build a performing arts space for Heart Repertory and Woodinville Rep. Good acting and good directing will always shine in any space, but with so many fine restaurants and wine tasting establishments in Woodinville, perhaps an upgrade in the theatre space is overdue.
Agnes of God. Heart Repertory Theatre, Sammamish Valley Grange. 14654-148th Ave NE, Woodinville, WA 98072. Fri, Sat. eve 7:30 pm. Sun matinée 2 pm. Til May 5.
Info: https://www.heartrep.org/
Tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/heartrep
Parking: There is a parking lot.
Also lots of restaurants and Wine-tasting places nearby.