One of the first things that you notice before you even enter the auditorium is the delicate smell of incense wafting through. An olfactory cue that we are in the Vatican, as is the glorious choral music.
First performed in 2007 as part of the Chichester Festival and then with a massively popular London season and international tour , ‘The Last Confession’ written by Roger Crane and directed by Jonathan Church, is a gripping behind the scenes political thriller set in the Vatican during the reigns of Popes Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. Most of the action centres around the unexpected demise of John Paul I in 1978 after only 33 days in the papacy.
Conspiracy theories are still floating about regarding the real cause of his death – including rumours the Pope was murdered by communists, Freemasons, corrupt bankers or ultra-conservatives. Was he?!
THE LAST CONFESSION doesn’t make any direct accusations, nor does it detail any specific plot, although it does establish the possible motives for murder by a number of Vatican power players. ( Cui bono? ) What it does do most effectively is cast doubt over the ‘official’ version of events , raising doubts about the Church’s alleged poor handling of the issue : the medical handling of things for instance is presented almost as a shambolic joke. Was everything in fact quietly hushed up ? From that aspect, the play can seem more of a documentary than an imagined retelling.
Crane’s script is fiercely intelligent and its premise inspired, with some witty, incisive dialogue that the audience loved , but also it relies heavily on telling and/or describing rather than actual showing of events /evidence.Very important moral issues are raised.
William Dudley’s huge set design is gorgeously heavy and opulent , recreating the luxuriant reds and cage-like rather grim ironwork of the Vatican, as well as fragments of some of the famous paintings.
There are numerous swift scene changes with the ironwork and other sections shifting which could at times be rather cumbersome and annoying .Fotini Dimou’s ecclesiastical costumes are sumptuously ornate and also vividly dramatic in their reds , blacks and purples (and not forgetting the Renaissance uniforms of the Swiss guards).
International star David Suchet ( famous for his playing of Hercule Poirot) is Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, a businesslike and serious Catholic moderate who battles with doubts about his faith and challenges the intransigent conservatism of the cardinals who dominate the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that advises the Pope.
Benelli acts as narrator and provides the framework and structure of the show as he is giving his ‘ last confession ‘ to his confessor. It tracks the trajectory of events from the last year of Pope Paul VI (Donald Douglas), to the election of Albino Luciani (Richard O’Callaghan) as Pope John Paul I, and the associated power struggles, reform agendas and financial corruption of the Vatican Bank.
Suchet is superb , charismatic with his huge eyebrows ,glowing eyes and fabulous velvety chocolate voice that hypnotises . It’s a substantial leading role which Suchet seems to have gleefully appropriated. He dominates the stage in moments of anger or frustration, and shines equally in the moments of Benelli’s questioning vulnerability.
Richard O’Callaghan, as Cardinal Albino Luciani ,who became John Paul I, was extremely engaging and really looked the part of ‘The Smiling Pope’. He is presented as benign , popular with the people and extremely caring , liberal , free-thinking and trying to introduce changes but blocked by tradition and a clique of cardinals who had power.
We see how he is buried under mountains of paperwork and extremely stressed. He actually talked to gardeners! Shock horror! His gravitas however as Pope is crucial in a number of pivotal scenes. A compassionate , sweet natured man of God, he unfortunately alienated the arch-conservatives with his determination to introduce the sweeping Vatican II reforms.
In this play completely dominated b y the patriarchy, only one female character appears in ‘The Last Confession ‘, Sister Vincenza Taffarel, a nun and sometime assistant of John Paul I, is warmly , delightfully portrayed by Sheila Ferris (who married David Suchet in 1978).
There are twenty extremely gifted and polished Australian , British and Canadian actors in this production , but special mentions need to be made of Nigel Bennett as the inflexible traditionalist, Cardinal Villot, and Australian John O’May, who plays Cardinal Felici with an icy, dangerously menacing reserve.
Hulking Stuart Milligan is sinister, intimidating and confrontational as the rather dodgy American financial manager, Marcinkus, and Kevin Colson is somewhat irritatingly highbrow as pompous Cardinal Baggio.
A wonderful production for those who like whodunits , David Suchet fans and those fascinated by the history of the Catholic church.
Running time 2 hours 30 mins (approx ) including one interval.
THE LAST CONFESSION plays at Sydney’s Theatre Royal between the 24th September and the 12th October 2014
For more about The Last Confession, visit http://www.thelastconfession.com.au/
