6. Agnes of God

Book: Agnes of God

Author: John Pielmeier

Number of pages: 76 

What I’m watching: Movies: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

What I’m playing: Dead Space 3

 

 

 

 

            Okay, for my next book selection I needed a new new approach. After Doctor Faustus, I’ve only read comedies that weren’t funny. Maybe I’ll try a drama, see if that works any better. And so, what did I pick? Agnes of God, first written in 1979 and then made it to Broadway in 1982. I noticed Amanda Plummer playing the role of Agnes on Broadway. The name looked really familiar, and upon checking IMDB, I found that she is in Hercules (which I just watched) and is Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction (which I just did a large project on in my Literary Theory course (and I’m planning a Tarantino marathon very soon)).

            The play features a very small cast. There’s Agnes, a young novice who is found with a murdered newborn in a wastebasket, but doesn’t remember how it happened. There’s Mother Miriam, the Mother Abbess of the convent where Agnes lives. And finally, there’s Dr. Martha Livingstone, the court-ordered psychiatrist sent to examine Agnes’s mental status and competency for a trial. The plot of the story follows Dr. Livingstone as she works to uncover the identity of the father and the events of the night of the infant’s birth and death. Along the way is a lot of clashing between psychology and Catholicism from the doctor and mother abbess, pretty much science/fact versus religion/faith. It was kind of hard for me to read the play because I believe the two are not mutually exclusive. Hell, I just got my psychology degree from a Catholic university (plus I am Catholic). However, it’s difficult for the characters because they are layered with personal reasons to be at odds with each institution. Even though the two sides challenge each other – which in turn challenge the audience, in this case, me – and I often disagreed with characters, Agnes of God is incredibly compelling and left me thinking after I was finished.

            I could empathize with all the three women and wanted to find out the hidden truth about that night. Without revealing too much, a number of disturbing details are discovered about Agnes’s past, and I just feel so bad about it all. I don’t want to give away what happened because it is a good play, even if I didn’t always like the opinions of the characters. It challenges values without being unnecessarily offensive. It’s also a movie, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t say anything about that. I did talk with someone who saw the original Broadway production in the 80’s. He said the staging of Agnes of God was pretty conceptual and supposed to sort of take place in the mind. The writing of the play follows that concept by being very minimalistic and smoothly transitioning between scenes in the present and scenes of memories. He remembered how the stage was curved like a slope and at one point Agnes ran up it similar to Donald O’Connor in Singing in the Rain.

            In the end, although at times I was frustrated when the characters’ views verged on extreme, it was good to see some conflict, especially after a few plays which sorely lacked it. The play’s ending lacks closure, but in a way that’s okay. John Pielmeier doesn’t hold back, and there were plenty of “Aw, shit!” moments for me. I can see myself returning to this play for another read and potential analysis.

 

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying! I found a play I’ll keep!

 

Bibliography

Pielmeier, John. Agnes of God. New York: Samuel French, 1982. Print.