Playwright: Vicki Quade & Maripat Donovan. At: Royal George Theatre Complex, 1641 N. Halsted St. Phone: 312-988-9000. www.theroyalgeorgetheatre.com; $30. Runs through: open run
When Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan’s first adult-catechism class assembled at Live Bait Theatre in 1993, it was easy to nostalgize over the Catholic Church in its halcyon days following the reforms of Vatican II: our country had elected its first—and to date, only—Catholic president, the post-WW II “baby boom” made for crowded classrooms requiring armies of teachers, and parents reveling in optimism, enlightenment and economic prosperity eagerly enrolled their offspring in parochial schools, motivated by piety, but also by the academic and social advantages associated with its exclusivity.
Oh, but in the cynical light of 2012, with the Roman church under attack from accusations of inhumanity and corruption, it’s a brave actress willing to don the gabardine and wimple for an interactive drama-verité play that casts us in the role of supplicants seeking indoctrination of the sort that many previous adherents have fought to escape. To be sure, our mentor—at this performance, portrayed by former Free Associate company member Liz Cloud—exhibits the unflappable wit cultivated by all trench-experienced educators, referencing Lindsay Lohan and “Fear Factor” while frequently deviating from her lesson plan to discuss the sometimes-bizarre cultural aspects of growing up Catholic in America (burying a St. Joseph statue in the yard of a house-for-sale, for example).
The riskiest segment of the evening, however, occurs in the second act when Sister opens the floor to audience queries on Catholicism as it is practiced today. Confronted with the inevitable issue of Cardinal George’s recent ill-chosen comments, the savvy surrogate-Sister remained unruffled—first explaining the controversy to the non-Chicagoans in attendance, then speculating on the possibilities of His Eminence himself appearing in the Pride parade, riding a float emblazoned with multiple banners proclaiming “God waters ALL His flowers!”
Encapsulated in this cheerfully acerbic reply is the reason that Late Nite Catechism has run continuously for 17 years in countless cities. The duty of any religion is to address its own time, and even if (like me) you’re not Catholic, as long as you can remember not to sit with legs crossed or shout out your answers during quizzes—”We are not Baptists!” admonishes Sister—this smart, but never hostile, little show offers a diversity of humorously incisive observations to take home with you.