Hail Noni, full of Grace
Above
all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences)
as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage
him to think about realities he can't touch and see. - C
S Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
For
a jointly written play (by theatre boffin Mick Gordon and –
“the public face of British atheism”- philosopher
A C Grayling), Grace is a well devised piece of theatre.
Grace (Noni Hazlehurst) is a science professor, eloquently demolishing
Intelligent Design in her lectures as succinctly as she demolishes,
albeit less eloquently and 'graciously', all trace of religious
belief amongst her family; non-observant Jew and retired teacher
Tony (Brian Lipson), their son Tom (Grant Cartwright) and ‘daughter-in-law
elect” Ruth (Leah Vandenburg). Tom and Ruth are lawyers
and we see him with Ruth studiously rehearsing a defense, unconsciously
- Freud gets thrown literally as well as 'sub-consciously' into
the plays textural mix as well - striving to emulate his mother's
verbal precision. When Tom abandons Law for the priesthood Grace
is outraged. Priests and religion to her are another form the
law defending fanaticism that they encourage as well.
The play has ironies; Grace is the daughter of an
aggressively religious father and, after defending Islamic militants
as a lawyer, Tom’s religious ambition is cut-short by them.
With less talk that irony could be strengthened. Instead the play
is rather like one of Ibsen’s philosophical/religious tracts
reworked for the 21st century, Brand perhaps, in reverse, where
Kierkegaard’s atheism confronts the need for religious experience.
Instead of going up into the icy mountains like Brand, Grace participates
in a scientific experiment to simulate religious experience with
unsettling (for her) results.
Unlike Ibsen and other writers who pit their firebrand
atheists against society Grace remains firmly within
a domestic setting. Apart from Ruth (a reference to the Biblical
character?), who is quickly absorbed through pregnancy and then
tragedy into the family, no outsiders enter to challenge Grace.
We glimpse her, again, in another of her superbly eloquent lectures
condemning the place of bogus religion in US politics, but her
impact on the world is not the stuff of this play. Instead it
steers into the domain of a domestic tragedy. It is well written
but ultimately becomes another study of loss amongst the upper
middle class like Ninety or Love Song.
The play’s ‘preachiness’ runs
the danger of becoming a secular sermon and is at odds with the
more obviously theatrical parts that try to give it momentum and
personality. In its closing scenes it is beautifully acted. Ruth,
after suffering Grace’s intellectual barrages for so long
retaliates in a beautifully arced speech that rises and falls
as precisely as a good lecture, even trailing off for a few beats
into silence that prepares for Grace’s lament, this time
with a different and illogical passion magnificently contrasting
with her clinically calculated speeches. How right the worthy
devil Screwtape was.
Michael Magnusson
To read more of Michael Mangusson's theatre reviews,
check out his blog at
On Stage (and walls) Melbourne.
