Abstrakt: |
The play unfolds in a single setting: a simple stage containing a lectern, a potted palm, a few chairs, and an easel. Standing at the lectern and addressing her remarks directly to the audience, Sister Mary Ignatius, an old-fashioned nun and parochial-school teacher, begins a loosely structured lecture on Roman Catholic principles concerning the proper conduct of life and the ways in which such conduct will earn one eternal reward or punishment after death. Illustrating her points with drawings on the easel, she speaks first of the nature and purpose of the divinely ordained regions that lie beyond the physical universe—heaven, hell, purgatory, and limbo—and then of doctrinal matters, including the meaning of the Immaculate Conception and the question of papal infallibility. This monologue is not completely coherent, however, and Sister Mary Ignatius digresses frequently, weaving into her prepared remarks autobiographical reflections and abrupt requests for water and cookies. These requests are satisfied by Thomas, a second-grader at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows School. The opening lecture concludes with a vivid description of Christ’s suffering on the Cross and a final digression, in this case involving bitter memories of her parents and her oppressive childhood. |