Word: pielmeier
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Agnes of God, just opened on Broadway, begins with a grisly anecdote: a young nun gives birth in her convent, strangles the infant and stuffs it in a wastebasket. From this tabloid tale, John Pielmeier has fashioned a mystery play about an enduring theological riddle: the virgin birth. Who sired Sister Agnes' child? A visiting priest? A local farm hand? Perhaps God himself? To determine whether Agnes (Amanda Plummer) is fit to stand trial for the murder, the court appoints a psychiatrist, Dr. Martha Livingstone (Elizabeth Ashley), to examine her. Soon enough, Agnes' superior, Mother Miriam Ruth (Geraldine...
...artistocracy of the insane: Whom the gods wish to embrace, they first drive mad. Agnes is a strange young woman, singing in an Angelus-clear soprano and obey voices no one can hear. It remains for Martha and Miriam to translate these sounds into the lumbering prose of reason. Pielmeier orchestrates the examination deftly and leavens the weightier speculations with airy talk-show humor. But as Agnes soars into catharsis and Martha tries desparately to anchor her in the explicable, Pielmeier allows himself to take leave of dramatic sense. He offers too many motivations to save the mystery...
Agnes of God, a new work by John Pielmeier, now playing for two weeks in Boston before relocating to Broadway, requires a fashionmonger's scrutiny. As a psycho-drama of the good old school, this three-person play is unmistakably out-of-date. But double-breasted jackets with padded shoulders, which went out decisively after the '40s, are currently enjoying a big vogue in the very haut-est of designer salons. So, perhaps, Agnes of God might take the theater world by storm and herald the revival of the psychodrama as a popular form...
...murder of her child, and her Mother Superior (Geraldine Page) together represent faith; Dr. Martha Livingstone (Lee Remick), the psychiatrist assigned by the court to the case, embodies reason. The problem with the play lies in its clumsy handling of so diametric a dramatic opposition Perhaps because Pielmeier himself was born and raised a devout Catholic, his writing openly favors faith over reason...
...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...