By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A play mocking the Eucharist is being performed at Brown University and refers to a character who ravenously consumes a pile of Hosts.
“You’re Eating God” is a one-woman play written by Rachel Caris and performed by her at the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium in Providence, Rhode Island. The play is about a family living in a backyard bomb shelter in the 1960s.
“The title of the piece comes from one of its lines,” says Bryan Rourke of the Providence Journal, “which one character delivers after seeing another character ravenously eat a pile of Eucharistic hosts.” He says that the play “satirically questions the conventions of Catholicism.”
The play’s webpage flags the following: “Warning! ‘Eating’ is an outrageous farce. It contains graphic language, sexual situations, and religious satire. Not for the faint of heart. Inappropriate for children and young teens.” On the same page is a picture of Caris drinking a soda in a diner booth with a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The Trinity Repertory Consortium receives funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities and the City of Providence.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
“Catholic schoolboy traditions are fair game for a play that pokes gentle fun at Catholicism. But that is not what this play is about: There is nothing gentle about mocking the Eucharist. This should be known even to those who are not Catholic.
“This play would be objectionable if it were paid for with private donations, but when it is funded by the taxpayers—most of whom are Catholic in Rhode Island—it is a total rip off. And it again demonstrates that the so-called church and state issue cuts just one way: while it is illegal for public institutions to promote Catholicism, they apparently can bash Catholicism with impunity.”
Donahue recommends people contact the R.I. House and Senate Finance Chairmen: rep-costantino@rilin.state.ri.us and sen-alves@rilin.state.ri.us
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