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Agnes of God
Agnes of God
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Biz Staff Pick!
Author: John Pielmeier Publisher: Samuel French (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 80 Pub. Date: 2010 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0573630224 ISBN-13: 9780573630224 Cast Size: 3 female
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About
the Play:
Agnes of God has long been a favourite of acting
teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Female Scenes.
Agnes of God is a full-length drama by John Pielmeier.
A court psychiatrist attempts to unravel the case of a dead newborn
found in the wastebasket of Sister Agnes, a young nun who has no
memory of the incident. The psychiatrist does battle with a
strong-willed Mother Superior who insists the child was immaculately
conceived. All three women are forced to re-examine the meaning of
faith and the power of love, leading to a dramatic, compelling
climax.
Agnes of God tells the powerful, disturbing story of a
naive young nun accused of murdering her newborn baby, and of the
ensuing tug-of-war between science and faith over her innocence or
guilt. When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the
bedroom wastebasket of young and special Sister Agnes, a
court-appointed forensic psychiatrist is called in to determine if
the seemingly innocent novice nun, who knows nothing of sex or birth,
is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby. Dr.
Martha Livingstone, who is herself a lapsed Catholic, is asked to
determine if Agnes, who insists that the dead child was immaculately
conceived, is guilty for murder or innocent by insanity. Miriam Ruth,
the Mother Superior, determinedly keeps young Agnes away from the
doctor's pointed questions, arousing Livingstone's suspicions
further. Who is the father? No man had access to the nuns. Was Agnes
alone in the room when the baby was born? Who killed the tiny victim?
While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr.
Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the
truth about the baby's conception and death. Despite the lack of
cooperation that she receives from her own organization and the
church itself, she and those around her, eventually discover more
than they may have bargained for. Based upon a real life police case
of a novice nun in Boston, accused of murdering her baby, Agnes of
God is a contemporary murder mystery intended to transcend the
boundaries of religion and appeal to those who are both religious and
not.
Agnes of God was first staged in 1979 the Eugene O'Neill
National Playwrights' Conference. The play premiered professionally in 1980 at
the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival
of New American Plays. It play opened in 1982 at the Music Box Theatre and had a
seventeen-month run on Broadway. Since then the play has become
a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and
is regularly performed in regional repertory, church, college, and
community theatre productions.
Cast: 3 female
What people say:
"Riveting, powerful,
electrifying drama… the dialogue crackles." — New
York Daily News
"Outstanding play [that]…
deals intelligently with questions of religion and psychology."
— New York Times
"Unquestionably blindingly
theatrical… cleverly executed blood and guts evening in the
theatre." — New York Post
About the Playwright:
John Pielmeier is an American playwright, actor and
screenwriter best known for his stage play Agnes of God. He
began his career as an actor, working at Actors Theater of
Louisville, The Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Alaska Rep,
Baltimore's Center Stage, and the O'Neill National Playwrights'
Conference. It was at the O'Neill that his play Agnes of God
was first staged.
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