‘Agnes’ Affirms Faith--and Ambiguity : Cal State Fullerton Expects None of Blasphemy Uproar Generated by ‘Sister Mary Ignatius’

The year was 1982, and something approaching divine intervention (or devilish intrusion, depending on the view) had entered the New York theater scene.

No fewer than seven plays (some serious, some satiric) with religious themes opened within six months of each other. There was Christopher Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You,” Bill Davis’ “Mass Appeal,” Edward Sheehan’s “Kingdoms,” Casey Kurtti’s “Catholic School Girls,” John Powers’ “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” and Brother Jonathan’s “Bella Figura.”

Then there was John Pielmeier’s “Agnes of God,” which centered on a very violent act in the most unlikely of places. A young nun in a convent is accused of murdering her baby. The drama didn’t go over so well with New York theater critics, but that didn’t stop it from having success. “Agnes of God” was eventually made into a generally acclaimed movie in 1985 starring Meg Tilly, Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft.

Until now, though, the play hasn’t been staged in Orange County. Under Joe Parrish’s direction, Cal State Fullerton will open its production of “Agnes of God” tonight at the campus’ Arena Theatre, where it will continue through Nov. 10.

“This is an intriguing, intelligent and challenging piece,” said Parrish, who has been rehearsing his cast for the six weeks. “It presents lots of questions and issues” about the church, faith and skepticism, then “leaves much up to the audience to decide. I think it’s a valuable work.”

The last time one of the plays from that 1982 religious rush was mounted locally, it resulted in a mini-uproar. “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You,” Durang’s swipe at Roman Catholic dogma, opened at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse last fall and was loudly denounced by two Costa Mesa residents who considered the play blasphemous. Their attack snowballed into a regional debate over art and censorship.

Parrish said it is unlikely that “Agnes of God” will generate even an echo of that controversy, primarily because he considers Pielmeier’s approach more an affirmation of faith than a criticism of it.

“Personally, I don’t think ‘Sister Mary Ignatius’ is an attack on religion, (but) I don’t see how ‘Agnes of God’ could possibly prompt the same reactions,” he said. “This deals with sensitive subject matter, but the play is really about the beauty of faith--if not Christian faith, then our need for some type of faith, for something to believe in.”

He did concede that the central event may stun some people. The notion that a young woman, almost a child, would kill her own baby in a holy place is provocative. But Parrish stressed that the murder and subsequent investigation by the mother superior and a female psychologist asked to divine Agnes’ mind and motivations are essential to Pielmeier’s point of view.

Through the plot, Parrish said, Pielmeier raises the question of whether Agnes was raped or seduced or, as the mother superior thinks, whether a divine phenomenon brought about the pregnancy.

Agnes’ religious impulses, her confused feelings about the pregnancy and reaction to it should affect, but not offend, audiences, Parrish said.

“I have a friend who is religious, and he wasn’t upset by it,” he said. “I don’t think you have to be religious to be touched by this play. It’s secular (in its ability to reach people), and it touches a wide range of people who are interested in the scientific mind and religious need.”

While Parrish sees “Agnes of God” as primarily a “play of ideas,” most New York critics were disappointed in what was described as its superficiality and unresolved ending. Many reviewers, including Frank Rich and Walter Kerr of the New York Times, thought that Pielmeier cheated the audience by not making it clear how Agnes became pregnant.

Rich didn’t step lightly in writing that Pielmeier “wants to believe that Agnes is ‘touched by God,’ and that the baby, like the inexplicable stigmata that bloodied the nun’s hands before its arrival, was divine. Fair enough, but the audience wants its miracles and its whodunit too.

“Mr. Pielmeier instead uses his message to throw a hocus-pocus smoke screen over the baby’s paternity: The anticlimactic Act II suggests what ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ or ‘The Exorcist’ might be like if they had alternate, cheating final reels,” Rich wrote.

But Parrish said the critics missed on this one. He said the plot’s lack of clear resolution is exactly what Pielmeier was getting at: There’s no way to be sure of anything when faith is involved.

“That’s the point of the play--to live without knowing,” he said. “As for it being superficial, I couldn’t disagree more with that. This is very rich; I still find new things in terms of ideas and drama, and I’ve been working with it for a while now.”

John Pielmeier’s “Agnes of God” opens tonight at 8 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton’s Arena Theatre, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton. The play continues Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. through Nov. 10. Matinee performance at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 9. Tickets: $4 and $6. Information: (714) 773-3371.