Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the Majestic
It’s a new year, and we were happy to continue our tradition of driving south to see new plays at the wonderful Majestic Theater. This week’s latest offering is the comedy “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.” Although it is a comedy, it took quite a few minutes before the first laugh.
Even though the decade of the seventies offered many different humorous aspects, and most of the audience had lived that decade, many jokes didn’t evoke laughter and fell flat. I had high hopes that simply spending a few hours back in 1973 would be funny, but the audience was quiet for most of the night.
We began with Linda (Jenna Burns), one of two daughters, of a typical suburban family in the 1970s, setting the scene for us. The play takes place over one fateful day in an unnamed small town.
The paisley wallpaper and the ancient appliances helped cement the decade on stage.
The play’s premise is so dated (I mean, how many of us still have a family parish priest?) that when the play went to intermission, I thought, “What’s coming next?”
It was a conflict involving what Terri told her younger sister –sex talk–that somehow got recorded so a stuffy catholic priest heard the tape. Oh My! Of course, it’s hard in 2025 to fathom the embarrassment this would have caused the family since mom was vying for a job working for the church.
Linda O’Shea (Jenna Burns) explains as the play’s narrator how memory is tricky and how this day might be remembered in different ways by everyone in the family, each has their filter for what happened. She was the strongest character in the play.
Father Mike (John Baker) does a lot of yelling. He is irritable about most things, like making sure the women he lives with remember the rules about using the sink’s disposal. It seems like most of what he says comes out loud.
Upstairs we hear another character shrieking, this time it’s Grandma who has fallen and broken her hip and is a guest in this house for no one knows how long.
Soon Father Mike has a fall and he, too is upstairs yelling for someone to bring him a pill.
The play was written by Katie Forgette, and the director, Rand Foerster is a Majestic veteran with dozens of credits under his belt.
Once again the set design, Matthew Whiton, is to be commended as they truly captured with those yellow kitchen appliances and the realistic outdoor steps of the house.
Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, West Springfield’s Majestic Theater through February 16. Tickets (413) 747-7797.