Season 50 Play 3 – Once A Catholic by Mary O’Malley
Directed by
Cast
Mother Basil – Nadine Walker
Mother Thomas Aquinas – Margaret Marsden
Mr Emanuelli – Tony Reavill
Father Mullarkey – David Scottow
Mary Mooney – Kate Milnes
Mary McGinty – Gillian Albone
Mary Gallagher – Sallyann Hall
Mary O’Grady – Olivia Reavill
Mary Hennessy – Rebecca Richardson
Mary Murphy – Amy Lancelot
Mary Flanagan – Naomi Lazenby
Derek – Neil Bell
Cuthbert – Edward Watson
Synopsis
In choosing the title, the author would seem to imply ‘always a Catholic’ but this extremely funny comedy based on her own schooldays in a London convent certainly belies the Church’s claim as far as the author is concerned. For what emerges rather is the resilience of children to survive – in spite of, not because of, their upbringing and indoctrination. The play concentrates principally on the amusing way the girls deal with the dogma constantly pumped into them. There are some hilarious moments.
Directors Notes
I had doubts about doing a play called “Once a Catholic” so near to christmas. I thought some of you may think that it is a Nativity play. If indeed that is what you thought, now is the time toleave-because Nativity it ain’t! Mary O’Malley is the product of a Catholic convent education. This play won her awards from the ‘Evening Standard’, Play and Players’ and “Most Promising Playwright of 1977” Indeed it remains the most famous of her plays. It is irreverent, affectionate and richly comic I’m sure it will strike a chord with many of those who suffered the slings and arrows of outraged teachers, the adventure of one’s first encounters with the opposite sex and the beginning of the voyage of self discovery. I only hope that you enjoy watching my lovely cast as much as I’ve enjoyed working with them.
