Bay Windows

Sins of the Fathers
The Bailiwick Repertory and a gay playwright bring "Sin" to its source

By Thomas Garvey
Published: Thursday, May 27, 2004
When playwright Michael Murphy stumbled across a website with Cardinal Law's entire deposition from last year's sex abuse scandal, he immediately knew he had the makings of his next play. "There were probably 1,000 pages to the transcript," he recalls, "but I printed them all out and took them with me on vacation. And I found I just couldn't put them down." He soon set about distilling the raw (in both senses of the word) material "down to two hours," concentrating on the now-notorious cases of John Geoghan and Paul Shanley. Just six months later, Murphy had the final draft of "Sin," the controversial drama that premiered at Chicago's Bailiwick Repertory this winter to wide acclaim, but is only now wending its way back to the city that was, as the playwright says, "the crucible of it all."

And the reception hasn't been altogether a warm one. Some local scolds have wondered why the work wasn't developed right here. Meanwhile others wish the work had never premiered anywhere (you can probably count the whole archdiocese in that camp). Earlier this spring it was announced that "Sin" would open at Wellesley - but suddenly the college backed out of the deal. Even some members of the media sounded unfriendly at a recent press conference, questioning the Bailiwick's right to touch "an open wound" and wondering whether actor Jim Sherman, who plays Cardinal Law, might require a bodyguard for the Boston run.

The Bailiwick eventually secured the Regent Theatre, a 500-seat former vaudeville house in Arlington, for a three-week run beginning June 9, and is in the process of mounting what is, in effect, the tiny non-profit's first tour. According to David Zak, the director of "Sin," the theatre has tried to reach out to the archdiocese, as well as Mayor Menino's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, in an attempt to frame the production as a springboard for dialogue and healing, but so far has received little response. "There's a lot of fear here," Zak admits. Only the survivors of clergy abuse have rallied round, along with Voice of the Faithful, the Catholic lay group agitating for change within the Church.

In return, Bailiwick has announced an unprecedented series of benefits dedicated to the survivor community. On June 14, a special performance titled "Focus on 10,667" (for the 10,677 abuse survivors reported between 1950 and 2002) will feature appearances by Murphy and attorney Mitchell Garabedian, and will raise funds for survivor groups The Linkup, Survivors First, and SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). A second benefit will be held at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. And playwright Michael Murphy will donate his royalties from the Boston run to the Patrick and Joanne McSorley Fund, which is dedicated to helping the children of abuse victim Patrick McSorley, who died just one week before "Sin" opened in Chicago.

Clearly the Bailiwick is determined that "Sin" not be seen as "just bashing the Catholic Church", as director Zak puts it - in fact, he contends the production could actually serve as "a significant opportunity for good will" between survivors and the archdiocese. Zak was raised a Catholic (as was Jim Sherman, whose resemblance to Cardinal Law nabbed him the part), and insists that "not talking about an open wound only makes it worse". Numerous survivors, he points out, have made something like a pilgrimage to the show in Chicago. "I came to this production hoping it might help me find some closure," one survivor told Zak, "and it has."

Meanwhile the play has a special resonance for playwright Michael Murphy, who's gay but not Catholic, and who admits he was drawn to the crisis because of its gay dimension. "I wanted to discover what was at the core of the problem - and I eventually realized it was the Church's culture of no accountability." This is in direct opposition to the claims of Catholic conservatives, "who have tried to frame the scandal as being about homosexuals out of control." "Sin," of course, is evidence to the contrary ("It's a play about management," says director Zak) which may be why it's being studiously ignored by the Church hierarchy.

Nevertheless, there are issues here that the gay community needs to honestly confront, according to Murphy.

"We need to police ourselves better," he says flatly. "Isn't there a parallel between events like the White Party, in which we turn a blind eye to drug use and unsafe sex, and what happened in the Catholic Church?" Of course within the hierarchy, buried secrets, both homo and hetero, meant that nobody was ever going to tattle on anybody else. "There was a real risk to calling your brothers to account," Murphy admits. And he's quick to point out that one reason much of the abuse happened to boys rather than girls was that "parents were much more wary of leaving their daughters alone with priests."

But does he worry that by accepting some responsibility for the scandal gays will only make the Church more hostile (if that's possible)? He refuses to speculate on "hostility" but simply says, "The issue of gay people in the clergy - now it's being discussed. In the days of Geoghan and Shanley, there were men accepted into the priesthood who should not have been priests." Murphy refuses to "tell the Church what do" about the issue of celibacy, but insists "priests must have the maturity to confront the sexual constraints, the loneliness, the hard work -and, to be blunt, the blue-collar living standard."

It's clear from talking to Murphy that at the very least, if "Sin" is to be a springboard for dialogue, then that dialogue may cut more than one way.



PULL: Does Murphy worry that by accepting some responsibility for the scandal gays will only make the Church more hostile (if that's possible)?