Lies of a Promiscuous Woman

Monkey Centurion/The Company of Women—
Eckhardt-Grammaté (UofW)

This is the play that made headlines both when a couple of creeps attacked the lead actor and when it made the short list for the Harry Rintoul award. It also attracted a sold-out crowd on Thursday night that gave Audra Lesosky’s work a thunderous ovation.

As you probably know, this is a retelling of the Virgin Mary’s story. It is also an outstanding theatrical achievement. Theresa Thompson is utterly convincing as the sharp-tongued mother of a precocious prophet. Her timing is impeccable and her delivery is committed and sincere.

Her analogy of early Middle East prophets as a version of the modern-day Fringe company went down well. She is accompanied by a choir, with a couple of members who also assume small roles. I wish I had a programme so that I could name the young woman whose prayers to the blessed virgin go mostly unanswered.

Lesosky does a great job of putting the Jesus story in historical context, and has some good rejoinders for those who selectively quote the Old Testament.

This seems to me to be a larger work constrained to the Fringe format. I’d like to see the young modern woman’s character and story fleshed out more, and it would be interesting to have Mary explain how sexually obsessed early leaders like St. Augustine of Hippo and Saul of Tarsus chose to blame women for their inability to supress their natural urges.

At one point in the play she claims that the message Mary and her son bring is one of peace and kindness, but it would seem that many modern adherents do not believe her. In the final line of the play, she also says that every Jewish mother thinks that her firstborn son is a god, so what is the truth? What do we believe?

I hope that the company took care to secure the rights to Madonna’s music. It would be less than fun to have HER coming after you.

Kevin Longfield