The Last Confession
by Roger Crane
Transferred to London's West End for a ten weeks run after an opening at Chichester Festival Theatre April 2007 and a four weeks national tour
Running time: 2h 35min -1 intermission
Director: David Jones
Set Designer: William Dudley
Costume Designer: Fotini Dimou
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Music: Dominic Muldowney
Run Sheet
Opening:
Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester....... 27 April - 19 May 2007
UK Tour:
Theatre Royal Plymouth, Plymouth............... 29 May - 2 Jun 2007
Theatre Royal Bath, Bath.................................... 4 - 9 Jun 2007
Festival Theatre Malvern, Worcestershire..... 11 - 16 Jun 2007
Milton Keynes, Central Milton Keynes......... 18 - 23 Jun 2007
West End:
Theatre Royal Haymarket................ 2 Jul - 15 Sep 2007
David Suchet....... Cardinal Giovanni Benelli
Michael Jayston....... The Confessor
Richard O’Callaghan....... Cardinal Albino Luciani/Pope John Paul I
Bernard Lloyd....... Cardinal Jean Villot
Stuart Milligan....... Bishop Paul Marcinkus
Clifford Rose....... Pope Paul VI
Charles Kay....... Cardinal Pericle Felici
John Franklin-Robbins....... Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani
John Cormack....... Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio
Joseph Mydell....... Cardinal Bernardin Gantin
Michael Cronin....... Cardinal Leo Suenens
Joseph Long....... Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider
Roger May....... Monsignor Magee
Paul Foster....... Father Lorenzi
Christopher Mellows....... Dr. Buzzonetti & Thomas
Maroussia Frank....... Sister Vincenza
Synopsis
1978: The reform-friendly Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days in office. The circumstances turn out to be suspicious; the evening before his death he had informed three of his most conservative and hostile cardinals that they would be dismissed, the Vatican's press release brings false informations about how he was found dead and there is no official investigation being made nor performed an autopsy.
The liberal Cardinal Benelli who engineered the election of his dear friend, can’t accept his death to be natural and starts his own investigation. The play starts and ends with the dying Benelli’s confession to his Confessor four years later revealing his anger, loss of faith, feeling of guilt of having left his friend "to the wolves" and his struggle with his own desire and ambitions of becoming a pope. The political events leading to the election of John Paul I, his death and Benelli's run for papacy (lost by only five votes) are told in flashbacks.
The play is based on real life characters and events: Giovanni Benelli was a senior Vatican official under Paul VI, who became a Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence in 1977. He supported his friend the unknown and humble Albino Luciani, Archbishop of Venice, in becoming Pope John Paul I in 1978. John Paul I turned out to have radical ideas, he wanted to reform the laws on divorce, artificial insemination, birth control, abortion - ideas that weren’t popular among the reactionary forces in the Vatican World. At the same time the Vatican Bank was involved in corruption and it was rumoured that the night John Paul I died, he had papers concerning those facts in his hands and that he wanted to "clean up". The Vatican’s press release was inaccurate about the time and manner of John Paul’s death and an official autopsy was never made - all incidents which soon gave life to speculations on foul play and conspiracy theories. When “God’s Banker” Roberto Calvi was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge with bricks in his pockets four years later, it revived those theories.
Benelli ran for papacy after his friend’s death, but lost to the polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyla, also known as John Paul II. Benelli died in 1982 and most of the other characters mentioned in the play have past away, too.
Notes
Suchet won the Variety Club Awards 2007 for best stage performance for his role in The Last Confession. Photos: Wireimage Sky.com
The play sold out its entire run at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Director David Jones and Suchet also worked together in the RSC’s "Love’s Labours Lost" at the Aldwych Theatre back in 1975.
Playwright Roger Crane is 61 years old and works in New York as a lawyer. The Last Confession is a new play and his first.
The production-team on the play had to rewrite a smoking-scene with Bernard Lloyd (Cardinal Villot) before showing in Haymarket Theater. The theatre's manager, Mark Stradling, “forced” the writers to alter the scene, as he feared prosecution due to a smoking-ban legislated 1 of July 2007 in UK in public spaces which includes theatres.
Quotes:
Pope John Paul I wants to send one of his more "difficult” cardinals back to Venice...
The cardinal: “I'd sooner go to hell"
John Paul I: “That can be arranged…"
The Press wrote:
“Brilliantly combines grandeur with a sense of doom” - Sunday Times
“Fascinating, complex and fast moving” - Evening Standard
“A powerful play, with the cracking pace of a good thriller” - Daily Express
You'll find interviews with Suchet about the play in the interviews-section : Suchet's act of faith, David Suchet, The Big Interview, the Simon Mayo interview on audio, and in the Links-section : the Ian Pierce interview on audio and a You Tube clip under Video.
Remember to check the Gallery for related photos
Cardinal Benelli (David Suchet) burns his
last confession...
13th September 2007 © All rights reserved
