'SIN'sation

By Alexander Stevens
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

A powerful play about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal comes to Boston

The news at the box office wasn't good: two tickets sold. The rest of the patrons at the preview performance were friends and family of the cast and crew.

Because of the low turn-out, a nervous director, David Zak, went backstage to address his cast. He said, "Guys, we're doing God's work. Just do your best job and trust that the hands of God are behind us."

Telling the story now on the phone from Chicago, Zak laughs. "That's something I would never tell a group of actors, it just felt like it was right in this particular case. And sure enough, the next night, all the press were here, and things started going crazy. It's been an amazing story ever since."

Much like the ongoing, horrifying revelations that inspired it, "SIN: A Cardinal Deposed" has struck a nerve. The play, based on the depositions of Cardinal Bernard Law regarding the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, opened at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in Chicago on March 2, and it's still running. A story on the show appeared on the cover the New York Times arts section. A positive Chicago Tribune review called it "shockingly effective."

The drama now arrives in the Boston area, the epicenter of the scandal. It plays at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, June 9-27, across the street from St. Agnes Church - once the church of Father O'Sullivan, who is mentioned in the play.

If it's a playwright's charge to tell the truth, then Michael Murphy had great source material. While researching a fictional play he wanted to write about the scandal, he found Law's depositions. He took them with him on vacation, and read all 1,000 pages. He was fascinated by the confrontation between well prepared attorneys and the savvy Law. And he knew that by culling direct quotes from the depositions, letters, memos, notes and interviews from Law, the attorneys and the survivors, he could tell the story without adding any dialog of his own.

"Theater is meant to do a lot of things," says actor James Sherman, who plays Law. "Sometimes it's just to entertain you, and sometimes it's to make you think. This one really hits you between the eyes."

The show has elicited strong reactions in Chicago, where post-performance discussions between the cast and audience have often been a charged forum of anger, tears and, in some cases, healing.

Sherman was in the lobby after one show when an audience member came up to him and said, "You bastard!"

"At that moment," says Sherman, "I was Law to her."

During one talk-back (they'll continue the post-show discussions in Arlington), an audience member said to Sherman, "I knew this was going to get to me, because when I saw you up there on that stage in that vestment, all I wanted to do was go up there and slap you."

Survivors of sexual abuse by priests have told their stories during some talk-backs. Others have started tell what happened to them, but have been unable to finish, their stories washed away in a stream of tears.

"There are tears" at the talk-backs, says Sherman. "Not only tears from the audience, but also from the cast."

"Children being sexually molested is something that anybody is going to be concerned about, and then you add in the religious context," says playwright Murphy, explaining the visceral reactions to "SIN." "It's overwhelming."

Although it may be hard not to cast Law as the villain, "SIN" is not out to demonize him. Zak says one of the reasons he chose the play was because he thought it was balanced, and that ultimately, he felt the real power of it came from the survivors' stories.

"You get a real good sense of what the survivors went through, so even though the piece is really about Law and watching him squirm under the microscope of the deposition, I think the emotional power of the piece comes from the survivor testimony."

Sherman, a lifelong Catholic, says he still has a hard time understanding Law.

"I try to understand illness - some [priests] were sick, some were just predators - but I cannot understand how anybody can let it continue to happen," he says. "I just can't."

Some audience members don't get just angry, they get a sense of closure. It's an example of how theater helps audience members to access emotions, to process a trauma, in a way that news stories on TV or in newspapers just can't.

And a sense of catharsis isn't the only good that's come from the play. Murphy has decided to contribute all of his royalties from the Regent run to the Patrick and Joanne McSorley Fund, established to provide money for the education of the McSorley children. McSorley was one of the victims who campaigned most tirelessly for the prosecution of the abusers, and he's one of the characters in the play. After a long battle with depression, McSorley died on Feb. 23 - one week before "SIN" opened in Chicago. Although Murphy never met McSorley, he felt he knew him.

"I feel like someone close to me died," says Murphy. "It seemed like the least I could do."

In addition, Bailiwick has established the "Focus on 10,667" program to make sure the healing energies remain directed at the survivors. The number 10,667, astoundingly, refers to the number of children reported to have "credible allegations" of clergy sexual abuse, according to the John Jay College report that was commissioned by the Catholic Church. "Focus on 10,667" raises funds for the victims, and benefit performances will be held at the Regent Theatre on June 14, and at The Palace Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire, on June 21.

Although "SIN" will always be, first and foremost, about the sex abuse scandal, Zak now realizes it also serves as an allegory for other profound issues our country seems to be facing these days - issues about bureaucracy and failed leadership. Watching Cardinal Law abdicate responsibility may remind viewers of Enron officials, Donald Rumsfeld, Condaleeza Rice, George W. Bush.

"For some viewers, [the play] is a management issue," says Zak. "And there seems to be such a huge crisis of confidence in the country right now. We don't have faith anymore that people are telling us the truth and that somebody is willing to accept responsibility. We don't believe advertisers, we don't believe newscasts and we don't believe the New York Times. Who is telling the truth? We are hungry for a truthful response to world events. People at ['Sin'] have that outrage: Does it really take lawyers and a legal system many years to finally get people to admit what they did? It seems like, in many ways, that's the country we live in."