BOSTON (AP) — It was dramatic enough when it happened: a prince of the church coming face to face with the secular justice system, questioned by lawyers in a scandal over child sex abuse by priests.
Now the story of Cardinal Bernard Law’s depositions in the Boston Archdiocese clergy sex abuse cases is coming to the stage.
A new play, “Sin: A Cardinal Deposed”, to be produced by a small Chicago theater company uses Law’s testimony in a series of depositions for dialogue.
“I think people will leave the theater full of questions, full of comments, full of wanting to discuss it more. To me, that’s the best kind of theater … and that’s what this piece can do,” said David Zak, artistic director of the Bailiwick Repertory Theater.
The play, written by Michael Murphy, a 46-year-old playwright with several off-off-Broadway shows to his name, is set to open March 1 for a six-week run through mid-April.
The clergy sex abuse cases created a furor in the Catholic church worldwide and led to Law’s resignation in December 2002 as archbishop from the nation’s fourth-largest diocese. Under his successor, the archdiocese reached an $85 million settlement with victims this year.