In the name of God

The play ‘Agnes of God’, will be staged at Lamakaan despite threats from the Catholic community

It was going to be yet another much-anticipated play to be staged during the weekend in Hyderabad--‘Agnes of God’ written by John Pielmeier, adapted and directed by Vinay Varma.

The Sutradhar production was slated to be staged at the Bhaskara Auditorium, BM Birla Science Centre, until a press announcement came in about the change in the venue - ‘Agnes of God’ will now be staged at Lamakaan on October 9 and 10.

The reason for the change was that a decision was taken by the Birla Science Centre management not to allow the staging of the play, after receiving threatening calls warning of legal implications from Joseph Dias, Catholic Secular Forum, Mumbai. Joseph further went on to send a message to the director of the play Vinay Varma – “Pl call back. We intend to file a criminal case here” (sic).

This is the same person, who was involved in threatening a Mumbai director of similar consequences if he went ahead with the staging of ‘Agnes of God’ at NCPA, Mumbai. Kaizaad Kotwal had been receiving warning calls and threats to his life and property since September when he announced the premiere show, an adaptation of the Pielmeier’s play.

The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) and Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) had been pressing for the ban on the production and they claimed that it was misrepresentation of clergy.

It was decided that the recording of ‘Agnes of God’ is played at a meeting convened by BJP leader Shaina NC, who had said that if after watching the play CSF is convinced about its claims, then it can go ahead legally.

The director eventually managed to stage the play, albeit amidst security, on Monday. The play had illustrious theatre personalities including Shabana Azmi, Qauser Padamsee and Dolly Thakore amongst the audience, watching and endorsing art for art’s sake.

Here is a play that is more about mental health than religion and one wonders if the guardians of religion actually go through the content before deciding on whether it hurts the sentiments or misrepresents facts in anyway, lament theatre lovers.

Apparently not, if we take several other such instances in the past. The fact remains that the story was written based on a true story, was performed in the US in 1979, and adapted into a film of the same name in 1985, starring Jane Fonda.

It won several Academy Award nominations. The main theme is murder mystery, where a child’s mother, a novice nun explains her pregnancy as “immaculate conception” and when her child is strangled to death at birth with the umbilical cord,

the other nuns and Mother Superior claim to be ignorant of it. It is up to the psychiatrist to get to the bottom of the issue. That the play is being staged on October 10, the World Mental Health Day and deals with pertinent issues of mental health and child abuse makes it more relevant.

Joseph spoke to Vinay Varma wanting to know how he could stage such a play that is wrongful portrayal of lakhs of clergy, who are committed to a life of celibacy.

“I asked him to read the play and know about it before speaking. Now, my job is to ensure we stage the play,” says Vinay, who is as much amused as he is distraught with such baseless allegations.

Wrapping the issue up is the quote of the Mumbai director Kaizaad Kotwal, who said in an interview, "I think we are retrograding, regressing. If this play could be tolerated 25 years ago in India and there are issues now, what are we saying about India today?"

By:Rajeshwari Kalyanam