The 125-seat Encore Room at Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami would seem to be a better fit for the audience-participation of Late Nite Catechism than the larger venue it has played in previous incarrnations in South Florida. But the laughs, as well as the house, are smaller this time. Blame, perhaps, audience familiarity with the well-traveled play's idea of a stern but gentle and fully-habited nun trying to teach the rudiments of Catholic beliefs and practices to a class of adults. Blame the unpredictability of the questions and feedback the audience provides at any given performance.
Or blame the sole performer, in this case San Francisco-based actress Kathleen Stefano, as the nun called Sister. She's too often gentle. When she picks up a ruler, you're knuckles don't smart from anticipation -- or, for some, memory.
Laughter seems quickest and loudest from audience members who either attended Catholic schools or who were among "the Publics" -- public-school kids who spent a few hours a week sitting at the desks of Catholic-school kids and were blamed in absentia whenever anything went missing. But this good-intentioned Sister is unable to fan those sparks of laughter and make them spread through the rest of the audience.
Yes, Sister can be depended on to find a gum-chewer in the house and tell him to empty his mouth, and she'll scold a ringside patron for putting a foot on the stage -- the benefit of an intimate venue -- or for wearing too much makeup. And Sister's quick to dispense praise ("Beautiful") or glow-in-the-dark rosaries to an infant in the audience ("Start them young") and to adults who can define Immaculate Conception or Orignial Sin.
The Q&A after intermission, though, can be a problem. Stefano is unflappable in handling the subject of the priesthood and sexual abuse scandal but is pretty much at a loss when it comes to questions from readers of the "The Da Vinci Code." "I should probably read that," she allows, but by that time people in the class, uh, audience, were talking among themselves.
