The Last Confession

The Roman Catholic Church fascinates me since for the first five years of my life I was a Catholic. Nuns ran my first primary school and I remember the dispensation of milk and biscuits at break time as both ceremonious and physically fulfilling.
In Roger Crane’s new play, the cardinals reserve their most vitriol for “Communists” and one reference to the “Lutheran”. The former don’t share the belief in God and the latter don’t share the same approach to God. There has been enormous debate through the centuries as to how “the greatest revolutionary of them all” ended up being represented by the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, Papacy and Vicar of Christ. An explanation I paraphrase for my own benefit is that when the Emperor Constantine adapted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire – a move inspired by pragmatism and politics rather than a conversion – he found he had a pragmatic and political problem to solve. The Roman Empire already had a highly structured official religion and his decision threatened a loss of dedicated architecture throughout the Empire and widespread unemployment. Therefore he decreed that this structure be used to dispense Christianity hence the introduction of priests and a hierarchy that is imposed rather than truly organic. This conflict between the perceived will of God and the running of a church of 800 million souls is at the heart of “The Last Confession”.
During the course of the play we meet three Popes and Cardinal Benelli, the Italian Pope maker (played by David Suchet). We watch the manoeuvring of men of power in their struggles for supremacy at the head of the vast Church. We learn about the legacy of Pope John, a radical, whose successor, Paul, goes to his grave convinced he is a failure because after 15 years he feels he has been unable to accomplish anything. In the election for a Pope that follows, and here Crane is quite graphic about the blocs and alliances within the cardinals that shift and flow, more reminiscent of an American presidential election, than an exercise of the will of God, Cardinal Benelli is instrumental in securing the installation of Luciani , Cardinal of Venice, as Pope John Paul I. Luciani is a simple soul( lovely performance by Richard O’Callaghan, who reminded us of our own lovely, Jasper Utley) who takes on the bastions of power surrounding him. He wants to send them home, release them from their burdens of authority and responsibility. Pope John Paul I dies after 33 days in power in somewhat mysterious suspicions. Cardinal Benelli attempts to investigate.
David Suchet is a marvellous actor full of nuance. He dominates the stage when he is on but is subtle. He portrays a cardinal beset by ambition but who believes “he has been brushed by the hand of God”. He makes us care for a very complex character quickly and thoroughly. He does not take the easy road of relying on his star status but works hard at making us aware of the humanity within, and this isn’t always edifying or pleasant.
The production has a terrific set by William Dudley, which captures the scale and grandeur of the Vatican but also implies the whispering intrigue that stalks its corridors. David Jones, the director, keeps the clarity of what could be a complicated plot through to the very end. There are lovely touches of ceremony. I particularly enjoyed the coronation of Pope John Paul I. I don’t feel any more sympathetic towards the machinations of the Vatican though I can concede what a mammoth task awaits any incumbent of the seat of St. Peter.
Jonathan Church and Alan Finch are to be congratulated on opening the new season in the main theatre with a world premiere of a fascinating new play.