Word: miriam
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...PIELMEIER has taken a stand against reason in a more immediately disturbing manner: his Dr. Livingstone cannot compare with the two nuns. Cold, neurotic, self-righteous, she has none of the appeal possessed by the waiflike Agnes and the buxom, comfortable Mother Miriam. It seems no accident that this play, unlike most concerned with the conflict between faith and reason, plumps squarely for faith and leaves its audience with a neatly-wrapped package, for faith and leaves its audience with a neatly-wrapped package, satisfied that a decision has been reached and a conclusion obtained...
...utterly likeable. Pielmeler's firsthand experience of parochial schools obviously has served him well in one respect: he draws his nuns, if not his psychiatrists, clearly and beautifully. Intelligent, knowledgeable about the world outside the convent (she was married for over 20 years and bore two children). Mother Miriam holds to her faith more fiercely than a sheltered lifelong nun might. She believe she wants to believe not because she can conceive of no alternative...
Since she understands life in the secular realm, Mother Miriam is uneasy about allowing the forces of the outside world entry into the sanctum of her faith. Having consciously created for herself the stronghold of religion, she has pulled up the drawbridge and refuses adamantly to let it down again...
...thoroughly wise woman, the Mother Superior remains aware of her self-imposed blinders and seeks an alternative justification for her faith. She wants a miracle, tangible proof that her choice was not wrong, in Agnes, Mother Miriam believes she has found that miracle. Agnes has at ethereally lovely singing voice--an apparent gift from the angels. She remains touchingly childlike, innocent of the facts of life, of her own body, of people. She is, Mother Miriam claims, a human being whose innate ties to God have not been sundered by the exigencies of life and fate...
...Agnes is not merely an innocent; she is also a 21-year-old woman who has given birth and who suffers from a cornucopia of mental imbalances Mother Miriam struggles to preserve Agnes's innocence, even if doing so means leaving intact her mental disorder, Dr. Livingstone, though, fights for the young nun's mind at the expense of her innocence. Dramatically, the conflict between faith and reason is perfectly convincing, largely because Plummer performs the role of Agnes with quivering openness and absolute accuracy. Something in her gentle, husky voice--genetic courtesy of Mother Tammy Grimes--seems tailor made...