A Letter From The General

It is the 1950s In China. The Red Guard is on the rampage, destroying churches, missions and their schools and orphanages and forcing their congregations to join the fervor of the revolution. Many of the missionaries, priests and nuns suffer violence at the hands of the Guard: physical beatings, cruel forms of restraint, even death.

In an almost abandoned orphanage, five Irish nuns, a family they are sustaining and a priest who has escaped from the Guard await news of their future. Their fate is in the hands of the British Consul, the Red Guard and ‘The General’, who himself grew up in a Catholic orphanage.

The set, designed by director Jennifer Willison, is the office of the orphanage. Walled with bamboo, it is sparsely furnished. Crickets sing constantly, suggesting summer heat. In the heavy, white habits of their order, the nuns begin an inventory of the mission’s few possessions. With the arrival of the British Consul and his wife, and a contingent of soldiers led, strangely, by a British-born Captain, things begin to escalate.

Willison and her cast recreate the tenor of both the stoicism and conviction of the sisters and the chaos and lawlessness of the marauding Red Guard. Moments of cynicism, the naivety of the younger sisters and the childlike trust of the aging Sister Magdalen temper the tension and malice of the play.

Linda Young provides some of the cynicism as Sister Henry, committed but realistic – and therefore ready to pack up and move on to another posting. Young finds the strength and staunchness as well as the rebel in this character. As her Reverend Mother, Robyn Williams checks her hints of defiance with the assurance and commitment of her position and her dedication to the people in her care.

Courtney Gibson and Janet Shay play the younger nuns. Gibson is happily industrious as Sister Lucy. Shay is humorously frank as the outspoken Sister Bridget.  Carole Grace, in the role of Sister Magdalen, finds the simplicity of faith and the introspection and acceptance of age.

Into the crumbling order of their lives come the fleeing British Consul, played with leaden arrogance by Christopher Clark and his wife, Ruth, who covers her unhappiness with blunt spite. Paula Searle is suitably supercilious and perceptive in this role.

Dan Ferris plays the nasty Captain Lee, insecure in both his swagger and his position, and Michael Richmond is the priest, Father Schiller, who has found sanctuary at the mission.

But it is the six women who carry this production. Willison’s clear vision of the play is evident in the depth they have found in their characters, how they relate to each other, how they deal with a situation that is fraught with uncertainty, danger and misogyny.

In the 1960s when the play was written, it would have been seen as serious social criticism. Today it is a little bit of the history of the last century. This production is a poignant reminder of what happens – and is happening – when revolution becomes violent.

Carol Wimmer

Photography by Dan Ferris and Grant Fraser