As the Holy Roman Catholic Church has spread its gospel throughout the world, so has Maripat Donovan and Vicki Quade's wryly humorous look at the American parochial school experience spawned productions overseas and stateside, with the latter enjoying open runs in such diverse cities as New York, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans and, of course, Chicago.
The catechism class presently being conducted in New Orleans's Petit Theatre de Vieux Carre features Amanda Hebert as a Christian-Soldier drill-sergeant with the voice of a bugle sounding reveille (necessitated less by individual choice than by the barnlike dimensions of the 1920-vintage Petit) and a baleful stare that pinpoints the object of its ire with the accuracy of a prison searchlight. But if this sometimes makes for a performance more broadly comedic than might be the case in a more intimate setting, Hebert's sensitive interpretation sacrifices none of the poignancy during those moments when our Teaching Sister departs from classroom protocol to remind us of the struggles faced by spiritual institutions in a secular world.
Irreverent but never blasphemous, satirical but never petty, nostalgic but never sentimental, Late Nite Catechism is a hymn in praise of those heroic women who stood fast through reformist upheaval continuing to this day, and a tongue-in-cheek tribute as likely to evoke bittersweet memories among those sharing them firsthand as it is to promote newly-enlightened understanding among those who did not.
