Agnes of God: A Tour de Force for the Fringe

BY JOANNA BRADY

The Fringe Theater has come a long way since Peter and Monnie King brought their vision to Key West some years ago. Much of what they’ve accomplished has been experimental, but their current offering of Agnes of God shows they’re equally qualified to tackle stirring, emotional drama, and mature enough to do it superbly.

Agnes of God, written by John Pielmeier in 1979, was a Broadway hit and later a film. An innocent nun in a convent of a contemplative order, Sister Agnes (Morgan Fraga), becomes pregnant and gives birth. Her baby is found dead in a wastepaper basket and she is accused of murder. She remembers little about what happened. It falls to an agnostic ex-Catholic court appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Martha Louise Livingstone (Paula Cabot) to determine whether Agnes knew what she was doing or is an innocent, disturbed young woman, driven mad by an abusive mother.

The mother superior of the convent, Mother Miriam Ruth (Kitty Clements) is determined to control the situation, not just to protect Agnes, but to prevent a scandal. A psychological war ensues between Dr. Livingstone and the older nun over Agnes’s mental and spiritual health, and the play becomes a lively debate between science and religion.

All three of these roles present challenges, and the Fringe actresses rise to meet them. Kitty Clements is brilliant as the enigmatic Mother Miriam Ruth, a woman with her own secrets to protect. She plays her hand with just the right amount of earthiness and humor to support the spirited anger she feels in defending Agnes, the Catholic Church and her own position in this bizarre situation. Morgan Fraga’s excellent interpretation of Agnes is delivered with such sweet ingenuity and fey innocence that we take her side early and remain firmly in her corner, hopeful that she won’t be prosecuted for the infanticide. Her highly emotional flashback, under hypnosis, to the moment she gives birth will have your full attention.

It falls to the psychiatrist to weave the themes of the play together, and this Paula Cabot does very well indeed. A demanding role, Cabot is on the stage the whole time, evolving from a brittle, chain-smoking disbeliever to a more self-aware human being who genuinely cares what happens to Agnes.

Orchestrating the play is the director, Stephen Kitsakos, a gifted author, director, and opera librettist who has wrung out the very best from the talented actors in this powerful play.

Watching Agnes of God I was reminded that last year, the Tropic Cinema presented a Polish film titled The Innocents in which seven nuns at a convent in Poland give birth after WWII, the result of brutal Russian troops ‘liberating’ their village from the Nazis nine months earlier. There was no question of ‘who dunnit?’ We knew exactly who the culprits were. But Agnes of God offers no such clarity. We get little hint of who is responsible for Agnes’s plight until the very end of the play. (No spoilers, though. You’ll have see it to find out how it ends.)

Agnes of God is sponsored by Cory Held and Jeffrey Grosky of Preferred Properties Realty. Production runs Jan. 12-15 and Jan. 19-22 at The Studios of Key West, 533 Eaton St. Tickets available online or call 305 731-0581. Seating is limited so advanced ticket purchase is encouraged. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. show.

 Joanna Brady is a Key West writer, author of the historical Key West novel The Woman at the Light, published by St. Martin’s Press.

If, like me, you like ambiguity and suspense in your short stories, poetry, and plays, you’re going to love Stephen Kisakos

The play is being presented at the theater in the Studios of Key West, and runs Jan. 12-15 and Jan. 19-22. All shows begin at 7:00 p.m.

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