The Heresy of Love
Helen Edmundson
The Heresy of Love
In a convent in Mexico, one of the brightest women of her generation strives to reconcile her love for God with her desire for learning and acclaim. Her gift for writing plays and poetry is celebrated by the Court, but her success creates alarm and jealousy within the Church. Persecuted by a zealous archbishop and betrayed by those closest to her, Sister Juana's fragile world threatens to crumble around her as everything she holds dear is cruelly destroyed by dangerous ambition and illicit desires.
3.9 out of 5 based on 7 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Location |
Stratford Upon Avon |
| Venue |
Swan Theatre |
| Director |
Nancy Meckler |
| Cast |
Raymond Coulthard, Sarah Ovens, Stephen Boxer, Geoffrey Beevers Catherine McCormack |
| From |
February 2012 |
| Until |
March 2012 |
| Box Office |
0844 800 1110 |
| |
In a convent in Mexico, one of the brightest women of her generation strives to reconcile her love for God with her desire for learning and acclaim. Her gift for writing plays and poetry is celebrated by the Court, but her success creates alarm and jealousy within the Church. Persecuted by a zealous archbishop and betrayed by those closest to her, Sister Juana's fragile world threatens to crumble around her as everything she holds dear is cruelly destroyed by dangerous ambition and illicit desires.
Reviews
The Daily Mail
Quentin Letts
"Superb, high-minded, satisfying.
"
10/02/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Charles Spencer
"The great quality of Edmundson’s play is that it has the sweep, the intrigue, and the bold theatrical effects of the original Spanish Golden Age dramas ... But though the ecclesiastical plotting is gripping, this is a play that also asks serious questions about faith.
"
10/02/2012
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The Times
Libby Purves
"Everyday humanity dilutes the intellectual politics: Dona Croll is a sharp, warm comic presence as the slave-maid, and Sarah Ovens touchingly naive as a girl intended for the veil but nursing softer ambitions. “God does not deny us our humanity!” says Juana. The Archbishop with the power of death does. “You are the worst of devils, with your milky cult of understanding . . .” Topical.
"
10/02/2012
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The Guardian
Michael Billington
"I mean it as a compliment when I say Edmundson's play reminds me of a host of other works. There are echoes of Measure for Measure in the sexual hypocrisy of authority, of Galileo in the smuggling of Sister Juana's work across international frontiers and of John Whiting's The Devils in the turmoil created by a charismatic priest. I wish, however, there had been a touch more of Shaw's Saint Joan: where Shaw maintains an exact balance between Joan and her judges, Edmundson's Juana is faced by a ruthlessly dogmatic archbishop, a treacherous supporter and a vacillating confessor."
09/02/2012
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The Independent
Paul Taylor
"With Catherine McCormack, a luminous, strong-featured Juana, the salutary play takes you deep into the unfamiliar culture of New Spain at a time when there was tension between the colony and the motherland and between the vice-regal court and a church that was unleashing the Inquisition on all forms of dissent.
"
09/02/2012
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The Stage
Natasha Tripney
"A little over emphatic in places, but as the play reaches its end and as everything Sister Juana holds dear is stripped from her, it’s hard not to be moved."
09/02/2012
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The Evening Standard
Henry Hitchings
"The story takes too long to come to life. Although it becomes absorbing in the second half, and there are nice flashes of humour ... But while too many scenes are earnestly loquacious, there's power in Edmundson's positive feminist vision."
09/02/2012
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