‘Sister Mary’ Viewers Defend Production : Controversy: Playgoers say the performance--targeted by a Costa Mesa couple as “anti-religious bigotry”--may be irreverent but is basically tame and has a right to be shown, nevertheless.

Anne Hogan Shereshevsky, a former nun and practicing Catholic, sat front row center the other night at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse “to see what all the hullabaloo was about.”

Her verdict, after attending a sold-out performance of “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You,” was a rave. The 11-year-old satirical farce, which centers on a nun’s lecture about Catholic dogma, was “quite irreverent,” rather tame (“they didn’t show sexual intercourse”) but “very enjoyable,” she said.

And, she added, a recent attempt to close down the production by a small group of zealots who consider the play anti-Christian was narrow-minded and inappropriate.

Her opinion was shared without dissent by randomly chosen playgoers interviewed after Thursday night’s show at the 90-seat Playhouse, the first performance to be staged since the media reported the controversy earlier this week.

“I don’t think the play can be interpreted as anti-religious bigotry,” said Shereshevsky, a tall, gray-haired Costa Mesa resident who showed this reporter a photo of herself as a younger woman in a black habit. “I do know from my 30 years of teaching in a convent that there could be some rotten nuns. I’m a former nun, but a very practicing Catholic.

“The theater should be free to put it on, and you’re free not to go. I’ve heard worse than this in real life. I think it’s quite irreverent, but it’s meant to be funny. All nuns have funny things they did in school. I know I did. My kids used to tell me.”

Iris Carey, a regular subscriber to the Playhouse from Garden Grove with her husband, Robert, echoed Shereshevsky’s sentiments: “I thought the play was very clever--I really did. They should not be allowed to close it down. Otherwise, you never produce anything. You’re always going to offend somebody. It’s possible if I were a strict Catholic that I would be offended. But regardless, it should not be closed.”

On Tuesday, a Costa Mesa couple, John and Ernie Feeney, sought to have the play canceled because they regard it as “anti-Christian bigotry.” They complained to the City Council that the show violates newly adopted regulations governing municipal grants to artistic groups.

While the City Council will not take up the issue until Oct. 1--a day after “Sister Mary” is scheduled to close, thus eliminating the possibility of a forced cancellation--the city attorney has been directed to investigate whether the production breaches a grant restriction against “religious or political activity.”

The 25-year-old, award-winning Playhouse, which represented the United States at a 1989 international drama festival in Barcelona, Spain, has received $20,000 from the city this year toward operating expenses. The city also rents the theater to the nonprofit amateur troupe at no charge and pays utility costs.

Helen Meyers, a retired Huntington Beach resident who bought tickets to the show with her husband, Jack, said she was educated in Catholic schools but not offended by the performance.

“I think it’s too bad they’re questioning not only the play but the right to put it on,” she said. “Some people are going to be provoked by anything that goes on in the world. You just have to have an open mind.”

Meanwhile, media reports of the furor have helped business at the box office.

“Before the controversy,” said producer David Sharp, “the show was not sold out. Now it is. And I suspect it will be for the rest of the run.”

In fact, the theater’s single phone line has been ringing virtually nonstop. “I haven’t had one complaint,” box-office clerk Arlene Virga noted. “All people want to do is buy tickets. They all say, ‘Good for you.’ It seems like everybody wants to see the show.”

Sharp said he had heard rumors that the theater would be picketed by protesters, despite a statement by the Feeneys indicating they would not resort to that tactic.

On Thursday night, protesters were conspicuous by their absence--which disappointed Eve Belson, a Costa Mesa resident attending the Playhouse for the first time.

“I was kind of hoping they would be here so I could tell them a thing or two,” she said. “Who are they that they should try to tell me what I can or cannot see? Or where my tax dollars should or should not go? It gets my goat.”

Belson, who saw “Sister Mary” with her husband, Al, clearly enjoyed the play. A native Australian who moved to Costa Mesa 10 years ago, she said she had always wanted to see the play and noticed an advertisement “before the controversy struck.”

“I think the play is just another piece of artwork with a metaphor for an awful lot of evil small-mindedness, bitterness and bias,” she said. “It uses religion as a medium. That’s all. We need works like this to keep us thinking. We have a right to reject its ideas and to tell our friends that we don’t approve. But they have a right to come and see it for themselves.”

Al Belson, a native Englishman who took up residence in Costa Mesa 15 years ago, elaborated: “If you feel it’s offensive, it’s nowhere near as offensive as censorship, which is the most offensive of all. If it’s going to bother you, the door is open. You can leave.

“I find it ridiculous that there should be any furor at all. We send troops to the far corners of the Earth to protect somebody else’s basic freedom, but we don’t seem to mind the erosion of freedom down the block from us.”

Don Wilson, an Irvine resident, said he approves of “Sister Mary” playwright Christopher Durang’s right to say what he wanted (see accompanying story) and the theater’s right to give it expression.

But while he had nothing but praise for the performers, he didn’t take the play itself very seriously.

“I just thought it was something the author had to get off his chest,” said Wilson, who noted that he is a non-Catholic but has many Catholic friends. “It was quite satirical and quite a fantasy.”

To judge from the laughter during the show and the smiles afterward, everybody seemed to have enjoyed “Sister Mary” and its companion piece, “An Actor’s Nightmare”--and there were no walkouts.

Still, the production did put some people to sleep now and then.

You could see them nodding off into slumber as the jokes ran down, only to be jerked awake with a start when Sister Mary pulled out a pistol and began firing.

“Now that was a surprise,” said Shereshevsky, who didn’t fall asleep for a moment. “I don’t think many nuns go around with guns.”