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By Carol Davis
 SAN DIEGO--—Call me a bitch, intolerant, suspicious or a religious zealot but when another religious sect comes a knocking at my door to preach their gospel to me, I see RED! The fact that I have a Mezuzah and a ceramic plaque I had made (it bears my family name) at the JCC years ago, that says “Shalom” on my front door should be indication enough for anyone who calls that I am pretty set in my beliefs. But they come. They knock and refuse to leave even when I’m polite and don’t open the door!!!!!!!
So when Melissa (Kimberly Parker Green), the wet behind the ears (or so it appears at first) wannabe missionary for the Evangelical Church of the Holy Spirit Alliance Church, in Evan Smith’s The Savannah Disputation currently at the Old Globe’s Arena Stage, comes to the home of Mary and Margaret (Nancy Robinette and Mikel Sarah Lambert, two spinster sisters) and shows her credentials, they forcefully proclaim that “they are Catholic (their response was quite similar to mine) goodbye, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”
Set in Savannah, Georgia where one would think southern hospitality reigns, one sister, Mary, is a disagreeable, cynical, mean old bitty who just can’t help it. She was born that way. In stark contrast, Margaret seems afraid of not only of Mary, but everything else that comes her way. She is the Edith Bunker to the Mary’s Archie. They dance their familial dance up to and including Margaret erasing several messages from her doctors office (at least three times throughout the evening) to call back for results of tests taken at some time or other. We never really find out what that’s all about.
It’s a perfect setup for a T.V.sitcom. All I could think of watching the cast go through the motions of insulting and then giving satisfying grins was All In The Family. Mary is the in your face, ‘get out of my house you knucklehead missionary, I’m a Catholic’ to Margaret’s softer Edith wrinkling her nose and shaking her head at the hard core but beloved sister, while doubting as to why she wants the young girl to come back. Then there’s Melissa as the George Jefferson character giving Mary a solid counter punch back atchya to Mary! Green is convincing while pushing the envelope. Father Murphy comes in there someplace as a ‘cross’ between All in the Family's Meathead and Gloria.
The sisters have been together for so long that things in their household run on automatic. Mail just gets sorted by throwing different stacks of it into laundry baskets unopened. The baskets hold books, mail and in one, Christmas presents of still unwrapped bottles of Scotch received from Margaret’s employer over the years. The sisters cross paths without touching and its business as usual except when a stranger enters and disrupts their lives.
Religious statues adorn furniture pieces and set designer Deb O has defined at least three to four different areas of their well lived in and disorganized home. Judith Dolan’s costumes fit the characters and Paul Peterson’s sound design is appropriate but the Mission Impossible ring theme on Melissa’s cell phone is a hoot.
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Director Kim Rubinstein plays the laughs to the hilt, and it seemed on opening night, that one laugh ran into the next. Unfortunately, I felt like the new kid on the block who was left out of the neighborhood joke. Do I know a little about other faiths and their core beliefs? I do, I think! Do I know the little subtleties? I don’t. Can I quote from the New Testament? NO. Does one have to have some knowledge of this to enjoy such a piece? It might shed some light on the fun.
Smith’s play aside, the overall production has some merit. The four-character play (the three women and Father Murphy played by the wonderful James Sutorius who comes in after the cat fighting between the women begins to boil) is very well cast and balanced. Both Robinette and Lambert (who replaced Robin Pearson Rose), whose face -offs are a perfectly choreographed dance puts the playwright’s underlying theme of tolerance and doubt, if that’s it, into perspective. That is Mary’s intolerance and Margaret’s doubt.
The set up follows a good made for TV show: Evangelical Missionary comes calling on two spinster devout Roman Catholic sisters. Neither knows how to thwart this over rambunctious young pup they find at their door. Barbs are swapped; accusations are made, “Catholics just don’t believe in Jesus the right way," claims Melissa. All this infuriates Mary even the more while Margaret is visibly vacillating. You can imagine how that went down on either side.
Finally in one last effort to get revenge on the young girl and with hopes of Margaret seeing the light, Mary invites their local parish priest Father Murphy, who happens to be a good friend (vu den?) to dinner on the same night they surreptitiously invite young Melissa back to their home.
Not having a clue about what he is in for, the good Father eventually gets the drift that he was there to do their bidding. After some dithering, eating his favorite meal and pensive contemplation, Father Murphy decides to enter the fray. Naturally, Melissa is no match for the seasoned priest. Sutorius shines after a slow, deliberate start.
But when Sutorius’ Father Murphy finally finds his footing and both he and Melissa get into the nitty gritty details of some of her out of this world proclamations, there is no match. His carefully thought out response to Melissa is without malice but laced with enough conviction, scholarly wisdom and experience that even she blinks. That said there is no resolution from either side. What we learn from the exercise in the final analysis is that Margaret is concerned for Mary’s soul, Mary is smitten with Father Murphy and Melissa is having boyfriend trouble. Who’d a thunk?
Vying to see whose religion is better than whose doesn’t always make the top 10 list of fun things to watch, but with a competent cast and some light hearted jibes at one another, it could satisfy in live theatre; but it would still be better as a series on the tube.
The Savannah Disputation continues through Nov. 1st.
For more information visit theoldglobe.org
See you at the theatre.
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