To Forgive, Divine
by Jack Neary
DIRECTED BY JACK NEARY
July 1, 2, 3 & 8, 9, 10, 2010
This Play is a Winner!
Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson
After I write this rave review, I’m forwarding copies to friends with the suggestion they take advantage of seeing a play that for two hours throbs with the vagaries of human nature – pettiness and nobility; tenderness and brutality; caring and disdain; tears and humor (from smiles to giggles to laughter to guffaws); temptation to enlightenment -- and more.
Everything works – script, direction; perfect casting, the designs of set, lighting, costume, and sound.
And that’s not all: one leaves the theater primed for lively conversation that may trigger recognition of hitherto unacknowledged nuances.
The program states: “To Forgive, Divine takes place in the sacristy of a Roman Catholic Church, sometime in the late 1980s.” .Playwright Jack Neary’s well-constructed play runs a gamut of emotions and Director Jack Neary’s pace is relentless. Scarcely a moment is wasted. Problems of the heart are offered to the actors – and the audience – to chew on: What would you do?
Nora Kaye (Margaret, age 14), a junior at Northampton High School, opens the play talking on the phone with one of her best friends, dying to chew over rumors and innuendos, but her Aunt Milly (Barbara McEwan), housekeeper of the parsonage and protector of the young priest, repeatedly stifles Margaret’s chatter but not before the audience knows there’s a concern about Katie Cachencko. Into this fomenting caldron of intrigue bursts Father Jerry Dolan (David Mason), full of youthful innocence and exuberance and not wearing “the” collar for which Aunt Milly scolds him. That night there’s to be a reunion of high school band members. Katie Cachencko (Sandra Blaney) arrives with a box of old band uniforms. Jerry, Katie and Margaret don band hats, march and sing around the room, much to Aunt Millie’s disapproval.
This is all simple homespun stuff. Oh, you think? Think again. Playwright Neary has crafted a play that builds tension in the present while keeping a connection with the past. And the actors are in synch with the script.
David Mason’s priest in-the-making, challenged by one personal emergency after another, obedient to a never-ending workload, takes us with him as he rolls with the punches.. Sandra Blaney’s Katie (with her Cameron Diaz radiance) faces her wakeup calls with new-found maturity. Ed Jewett as Ralph Cachencko is the bitter frosting on the cake, a former big-man-on-campus, armed with a baseball bat. As Margaret, Nora Kaye’s vivacity and cheeky delivery come close to stealing pieces of scenes. Barbara McEwan’s Aunt Millie does not budge from knowing what’s right and what isn’t. Although, when there’s a sudden death, she offers one cliche after another which, thankfully, the priest compassionately rephrases – a Pieta-like moment.
Set designer Margot Leonard’s sacristy is devoid of clutter; it has no warmth, no personality. Daniel D. Rist’s lighting design is appropriately subtle. Abbie Chase’s costume designs, especially those for Margaret, are in keeping with the 80s. Sound Designer David Wiggall makes pointed use of songs popular during the 1980s. These designers’ choices complement the play.
A friend who saw To Forgive, Divine when it was first produced, ranked it then as “one of the best shows I had ever seen.” Fast forward to opening night, July 1, 2010, “It was even better.”
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First produced here at NTC in 1993, NCT considers this delightful play by co-founder Neary to be one of his best. Father Jerry Dolan, a genial parish priest, dealing as best he can with the pressures and responsibilities of a job not often appreciated for its demanding workload, finds himself at the center of a challenging and unexpected situation. With great humor and an understanding of what happens when life's choices go awry, TO FORGIVE, DIVINE's story soars. Selected as a founder's favorite, this show is a sparkling blend of romance and comedy, which the Times Free Press calls "charming and witty and wonderfully conceived," while the Boston Globe says it is "hilarious and touching. . . TO FORGIVE is simply DIVINE."
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