STAGE REVIEW : ‘HEART’ NOT WITHOUT A FEW SINS

“All the characters in this play are imaginary.” But it’s no trick to see that Hugo Leckey’s “Immaculate Heart” at Theatre/Theater concerns the conflict between the Immaculate Heart nuns and the Diocese of Los Angeles in the 1960s, or to figure out whose side Leckey is on.

Not the Cardinal’s. Actor Weldon Bleiler makes him a portly plain-faced man who believes that people--especially women--”need to have their feelings organized.” He is not going to allow the nuns under his command to fall for such “revolutionary twaddle” as modern dress and individual pocket money. Period. End of discussion.

Mother General (Elizabeth Hoffman) is equally clear as to the right--the duty!--of her sisters to heed Vatican II’s call for “renewal.” That means change, no matter how uncomfortable it makes the Cardinal. “I am a woman in touch with my conscience and that makes you fearful,” she tells him.

No issue is without honor except in its own hometown, and until Tuesday night this reviewer had never thought of the Immaculate Heart-Cardinal McIntyre battle as having the makings of a good play. Leckey’s script shows that it does, without being that play.

We see that the question here wasn’t how long a nun’s hemline should be, or whether an independent religious order owed unquestioned fealty to a local prelate, or even who was to run the church. The basic question had nothing to do with religion: Do men have a right to tell women how to see the world?

There’s drama in that, for sure, and “Immaculate Heart” occasionally touches it--most effectively by indirection. After the Mother General kisses the cardinal’s ring, she clasps her hand behind her back, as if it had betrayed her. The impulse rings true, as much of Leckey’s dialogue does not.

His play has two grievous faults: simplistic characterization and over-elaborate diction. His nuns are as adorable, spunky, all understanding and/or twittery as the ones in “The Sound of Music,” while the Cardinal and his second-in-command (Garnett Smith) are as cynical and Machiavellian as the ones in Edward Albee’s “Tiny Alice.”

We know that the personal drama couldn’t have been this black and white: that there must have been some good will in the chancellery and some slight sense of triumph after years of oppression, etc., up on Western Avenue.

And we know for a fact that nuns and priests don’t talk in this strained, fancy way--not in Los Angeles anyway. “I would feel bereft without my habit.” “Truly, I am angered.” “What are we to lunch upon?” “I have received a missive from Rome.” Who are these people?

Yet, Leckey will hit upon the occasional pithy line, as when salty Sister Scholastica, the art teacher (Vivian Brown) tells a young nun to “wear your full habit for the opening. Sell better.” More of this and less fake dignity would benefit this play immensely.

The performances, under Jeff Murray’s direction, have real dignity. Hoffman is particularly fine as the beleaguered Mother General, her face and eyes registering psychological details undreamed of in the script--even, perhaps, a sense of disappointment as she puts on her first modern habit and realizes that in surrendering the traditional habit she is also surrendering a certain mystique.

Bleiler as the Cardinal also does his best, despite his lines, to portray a prelate who takes his spiritual responsibilities seriously and who tries not to let his respect for money cloud his sense of the church’s real purpose. We almost find a real man here.

Everyone else plays his stereotype to the hilt, from Smith’s heinous Monsignor to Eileen Frank’s oh-dear-me Sister Angelica. That doesn’t make them any less stereotypes. “Immaculate Heart” is a virtuous play, especially if you agree with its point of view. But, as often applies to virtuous people, it’s a bit too pious to be true.

Performances are given Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. at 1713 Cahuenga Blvd. (213) 850-6941.

‘IMMACULATE HEART’

Hugo Leckey’s play, at Theatre/Theater. Director Jeff Murray. Producer Nicolette Chaffey. Set design and stained glass Wayne Kruse. Set construction and decor Jeff Murray. Costume design Nicolette Chaffey. Costume construction Lisa Harris. Sound and light design Person Impersonator. Art work Jessica Shoshone Tuaq. Puppet work Gina Minervini. Stage manager Pam Nye. With Elizabeth Hoffman, Karen Lind, Virginia English, Vivian Brown, Eileen Frank, Cynthia Kania, Susan Wolf, Weldon Bleiler, Garnett Smith, George Spaventa, David Westgor, Lisa Harris, Kelie McIver, Gina Minervini, Elena Rimson, Laura Skill. Sheri Lynn Stewart. Plays Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7:30 p.m. 1713 Cahuenga Blvd. (213) 850-6941.