Peter Bergman Theater Reviews

“Late Nite Catechism” by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan. Directed by Marc Silvia. At The Colonial in Pittsfield.

Have you wondered why the Catholic Church decided to close six churches, all at once, in Pittsfield? Has it occurred to you that kissing the highly bejeweled, 18-carat gold ring on the finger of a pontiff has no effect at all on your salvation? Do you still believe that being good and holding an “I’m Catholic — call a priest” card can send your soul straight to heaven?
These questions, and more, will all be answered for you, if you listen closely and participate in the question-and-answer session at the adult catechism class being held at The Colonial theater in Pittsfield this week.
One thing: Don’t be late. Sister doesn’t like that.

In a one-woman tour-de-force comedy, “Late Nite Catechism,” featuring Lela Frechette as Sister, playwrights Quade and Donovan set forth a series of lessons that are much gentler than the ones played out for you in Christopher Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You.” In that comedy, the titled nun goes crazy and exterminates the bad boys and girls right in front of your eyes. Nothing so drastic happens here, although Sister’s collection of miniature chairs made out of rulers broken over the hands, knees and backs of bad little children does have an emotional impact.
This comedy is highly interactive. Sister stalks her classroom — you, the audience — and she lectures on topics as wide-ranging as the Old Testament, the condition of Limbo and the Stigmata. She regales us with bible tales and catholic humor. She taunts us until we respond, diddles us with adverbs, hoping for a complete sentence answer to one of her questions, and offers us, as rewards, plastic relics, convertible crosses and statues of questionable saints.
The topic of the saints engages her interest for quite a while. She examines the history of several scheduled for disenfranchising by the sitting pope. Of course, this nun has her own opinions about the men and women in question and she makes her own deliberate — and quite correct — decisions.
Don’t think for a minute that you have to be Catholic, or the product of parochial schooling, to get the jokes, feel the ruler crack or learn your historically accurate concepts and phrases. No. This is a class for anyone — Catholic, Protestant, Jew, anyone. And anyone is fodder for this teaching nun’s sharp-eyed wit.
Lela Frechette, who plays Sister, seems unflappable. Audience member who get out of line get her whip-like reactions. Good little Catholic girls get her stamp of approval and a prize.There’s an opportunity to learn things you never thought — in your wildest dreams — you would know. How to sell your house effectively, for example, using the good graces of St. Joseph. Frechette seems to take particular delight in this anecdote and she milks it for all its worth. She is equally good at her biblical imitations: Adam, Jesus, Mary, to name a few. As she puts it, “Not bad, huh?”
Frechette, alone unless you count her victims, or students, holds the stage for just over two hours with a short intermission. It’s a tribute to her stand-up technique that nothing really fazes her in this show. She roles with each variation the audience provides and even answers snappy questions with a seemingly improvised response that stays right in character.
Director Marc Silvia keeps the show afloat. Sister could sit, but she never really did in the opening night performance in Pittsfield. Instead, she rambled, roamed and wore a track in the floor as she literally staked the audience for God.
Whatever you do, don’t let her thick eyeglasses fool you. This nun can see you, see into your soul, see through you. And she can hear you wherever you are, so sitting in the back, or even in the balcony, won’t keep you safe during your two-hour, adult makeup catechism class.
It is said that you cannot hide from God. Maybe you can, but you can’t hide from Sister.

Late Nite Catechism is playing a one week run through Sunday, Feb. 24, at The Colonial, 111 South St., Pittsfield. Ticket prices range from $19-$30. Shows are at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Call 413-997-4444 or visit thecolonialtheatre.org.

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“Trumbo,” by Christopher Trumbo, based on the letters of Dalton Trumbo, directed by Julianne Boyd, at Barrington Stage Company.

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to receive an on-screen credit, in 1960, for his work. This came nearly 14 years after he was brought before the HUAC hearings to testify about his memberships in the Screen Writers Guild and the Communist Party.
He objected to his treatment, refused to answer direct questions with the yes/no responses demanded of him and was jailed for impeding justice in these hearings. While he agreed with some of the party tenets espoused by the American Communists, he was never proved to be either a sympathizer or a member, and his three most important late works, “Spartacus,” “Exodus” and “The Brave One” are intellectually antithetical to the communist teachings of the day.
Even with all the evidence in his favor, he has never been completely cleared of suspicion, charges or even properly apologized to by the government for his persecution and his treatment. While he did win the Academy Award, he apparently never physically received one.
His son, who lived through this entire period and seems to be a reliable witness to his father’s life, has written a two-character play about D.T., as he often signed his letters, and it is now on stage in Pittsfield in a new Barrington Stage Company production that runs through Feb. 24.

Thom Christopher, so memorable for his portrayal of the painter Pablo Picasso at the beginning of last season, returns to Barrington stage as Trumbo. His son Christopher (as narrator) and a few other characters, are played by Brian Hutchison.
Although the play is costumed, lit and directed on a minimalist set, the play is read by the two actors. The only two production credits are for Jeff Davis as lighting designer and Tristan Wilson as sound designer. Sometimes the sound is too loud, drowning out the actors. Sometimes the lights are too slow, leaving them to linger on stage with nothing to do or say. At other times everything sounded and looked just right.
Boyd has placed Trumbo in a chair, behind a table, and she leaves him there for the entire play. Narrator Christopher moves from a podium, which he shifts into a second position at times, to a chair next to a small side table. Sometimes he moves the chair into other positions around the stage. The simplicity of this three-unit set allows for the characters to establish place and focus our attention. Boyd uses the pieces perfectly, taking us where we need to be. The only disappointment is never having Trumbo leave his comfortable chair, even when it clearly grows uncomfortable for him, emotionally or psychologically.
While both actors are extremely good when in their finest moments, neither one has completely settled into the roles as written. The narrator morphs into “The Committee,” an inquisitor from the 1947 HUAC hearings and also into a TV interviewer. These two actual scenes, the only scenes in the play unless you count the acceptance speech moment near the end of the play, take on a naturalness, and while Christopher keeps his Trumbo character alive and consistent, so, unfortunately does Hutchison. Here are two opportunities for him to establish a different sort of character, but he does not do that. He remains Christopher Trumbo doing the lines of other men.
These scenes are brief and we get through them without hating the actor. Hutchison is engaging and we like him, even when he’s being deliberately evil (ancient television kinescopes play through sections of this scene and we can actually see the young Richard Nixon sitting, lurking, learning).
Christopher’s performance in the central role was, on opening night, a bit troublesome. He has left such a strong impression from last summer as Picasso. He doesn’t replace that one with Trumbo. Perhaps it is the reading of the script, the manipulating of the pages in front of us. Perhaps it is his stagnant position at his table. Whatever it is, his performance was peculiarly leaden, sparked here and there with real emotion and fire, brightened over and over again with the intelligence of the mind that created the letters he reads. He seems, from his smile, to admire Trumbo, but he never truly becomes Trumbo. He stumbles over words, restarts a phrase, loses his place at times. He seems under-familiar with the material. I am told that the rehearsals for this play were very limited, a week or so at most, and that like the play “Love Letters,” which is also read aloud, it is supposed to feel like it does. But somehow, in this case, with such strong language, such vivid imagery and so much passion, it felt wrong.
In one particular instance, about 40 minutes into the 90-minute play, Trumbo has written to the principal of his daughter’s school. The writing expresses its author’s anger, disbelief and indignation over her treatment there by students and faculty, and yet Christopher’s reading of it was milder, more amused or bemused than angry. Phrases such as “... you have returned to us a spiritually devastated human being who begs us not to send her to school” and “I should like you to watch how decently and bravely our daughter tries to suppress her bewilderment at her first encounter with barbarism parading as American virtue — barbarism which began at your school among adult persons” cannot be said without high emotion, but these lines are rendered with a gentleness that completely negates them.
“Trumbo” is an interesting evening as it stands, but it is an evening that could rock the world of an audience that lived through those years as well as alter the concepts of younger audience members who have no idea how people were made to suffer in this country for simply having beliefs that were different from their neighbors. Our world today is made up of many of these same issues and this is a very relevant piece of theater. It just needs to bring back the passions that fired the incidents being recounted here.

“Trumbo” plays through Feb. 24 at Barrington Stage Company’s Union Street theater in Pittsfield. Ticket prices range from $15-$25 and there are $10 student tickets also. Check with the box office for full schedule: 413-236-8888 or barringtonstageco.org.

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