Sister Mary Ignatius

I find the condoning of bigotry by the L.A. Times' editors and writers to be appalling. Then, to defend the bigotry by shouting "censorship" by the same people is shameful! Bigotry should be fought wherever it is found. Evidently the people at the L.A. Times have separated themselves from this decent stand of conduct they once held. The play "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" is full-blown anti-religious bigotry at its worst. I expect a higher standard of conduct from a prestigious newspaper like the L.A. Times.

A some-odd-decade ago, Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" was banned in St. Louis, that great Catholic bastion of the Midwest, resulting in a media outcry and earnest editorials about censorship. Today it's hard to understand what all the fuss was about. The character of Sister Mary (Diana Bellamy) is still hilariously horrifying, but in light of recent scandals concerning pedophilic priests, Durang's nun seems more quaint than genuinely shocking.

Upset by the popularity of Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," Costa Mesa City Councilman Orville Amburgey has decreed: "There are enough plays that we can go out there and perform that won't be offensive to anyone." Fine. Mr. Amburgey has decided to offer pablum and tripe for those few tormented souls who take offense to any thought-provoking production. Ernie Feeney with husband John, who incited this incursion and catapulted it to a national level, vows, "This city will never be torn apart for a religious issue again."

The year was 1982, and something approaching divine intervention (or devilish intrusion, depending on the view) had entered the New York theater scene. No fewer than seven plays (some serious, some satiric) with religious themes opened within six months of each other.

"Who decides issues of censorship in the arts?" you ask (editorial, "Sister Mary Ignatius Isn't Happy," Sept. 13). But is censorship the only issue here? What of those who feel that their beliefs and values are being mocked and demeaned in the guise of art? In your words, "Sister Mary Ignatius" will offend some because of its harsh handling of Catholic beliefs. Yet, when one thus offended takes action, you raise the charge of censorship in order to divert discussion away from issues of virtue and sensibility.

"Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You" has the feel of a searing class reunion skit in which an angry but witty writer made a composite of all the nuns he hated most and showed how, in the name of God, she bullied and injured those she taught. Because the writer is Christopher Durang, some of the jokes are wickedly funny: - If eating meat on Fridays is no longer a sin, then will those who ate meat on Fridays before the ruling have to stay in hell? (Yes.

To laugh at something isn't to make light of it. Playwright Christopher Durang specializes in a kind of cancer-ward humor, where the thing most feared becomes the object of the most ferocious joke one can think of. Laughing at Sister Mary Ignatius and all her works--to name Durang's most famous heroine--is the first step to getting out of her grip. You need to be tough on her; she was tough on you. Once you have pulled free, however, it's possible to start admiring the old bat.

Set designer George Suhayda chooses birthday-party colors for Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. Its characters are always celebrating something: a wedding, a birthday, another dead baby. Durang's heroine, Bette (Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds) insists on having babies, even though she and her husband Boo (Bernard Baldan) are RH negative--or did the doctor say RH positive? Anyway, Bette knows that it's God's will for her to be a mother, because she has always liked children better than she liked people.

Upset by the popularity of Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," Costa Mesa City Councilman Orville Amburgey has decreed: "There are enough plays that we can go out there and perform that won't be offensive to anyone." Fine. Mr. Amburgey has decided to offer pablum and tripe for those few tormented souls who take offense to any thought-provoking production. Ernie Feeney with husband John, who incited this incursion and catapulted it to a national level, vows, "This city will never be torn apart for a religious issue again."

Ernie Feeney's whiny "no" Marks the line we all must toe. It offends her? It must go! But who is she to say what's so? ANN SIENA-SCHWARTZ DONALD SCHWARTZ Santa Ana

"Who decides issues of censorship in the arts?" you ask (editorial, "Sister Mary Ignatius Isn't Happy," Sept. 13). But is censorship the only issue here? What of those who feel that their beliefs and values are being mocked and demeaned in the guise of art? In your words, "Sister Mary Ignatius" will offend some because of its harsh handling of Catholic beliefs. Yet, when one thus offended takes action, you raise the charge of censorship in order to divert discussion away from issues of virtue and sensibility.