Pro-life, Pro-abortion, and LGBT Rights in Be Infants in Evil by Brian Martin (2014)

On Monday, July 14, I went to the performance of Be Infants in Evil, a new play by Brian Martin at The Mick Lally Theater at the Druid Theater. The play is centered around Father Patrick, who is in a crisis of faith, that is signaled by his fervent praying kneeling at the prie-dieu. In his restless state of mind, he is interrupted by Noleen, an elderly blind woman who wants to make a confession. The two characters start a dialogue and Noleen remarks that she “smells something.” This hints to the audience that there is something wrong going on and moreover that there will be a dark ending of the play. Over the course of play, the audience sees the interaction between Father Patrick, Noleen, Jacinta, and Henry, who represent the community of the town (Dublin) that he serves at large. With each subsequent interaction, the tension leading to Father Patrick’s inevitable end mounts. On stage, Noleen serves as the chorus of the play, through her side conversations and comments, she tries to intercede and disrupt the conflicts between the priest, Jacinta, and Henry, respectively. Father Patrick is a priest in crisis of faith, sexuality, and, later in the play, he is dealing with the accusation of pedophilia with regard to Henry. Jacinta is portrayed as a pregnant woman, out of wedlock, who wants to have an abortion and has turned from Christianity to Islam. Henry is a 12-year-old boy who embodies the acceptance of being a homosexual. The majesty of the play is that all the conflicts, between the characters (internal or externals), intersect into one another and thus reflects the social dynamic within a community. The characters of the play can be essentially thought of as mirrors to each other: Patrick to Henry, Henry to Patrick, Noleen to Jacinta, Jacinta to Noleen, Patrick to the fetus, and the fetus to Patrick. This interlacing of dramatis personae is crystallized in the climax of the play when Jacinta takes center stage and confronts Father Patrick about her right to have an abortion. This confrontation quickly becomes a discussion about the right to life, the “wrong” of homosexuality, and the crime of pedophilia. In this discourse, all characters intervene and they conglomerate into a fusion of humanity. Jacinta in her argument for abortion and her accusation of Father Patrick scapegoats him as the embodiment of all that is evil. Under the stress of this maze of confusion (life/death, sexual freedom/denial, innocence/evil), Father Patrick lashes out and kills the fetus by hitting Jacinta in the stomach and immediately kills himself afterwards

—Father Patrick is innocent of pedophilia—

PS: LGBT Rights