​Sara Fellini

Originally produced in a site-specific location at 

West Park Presbysterian Church. 

Directed by Isaac James Byrne

Featuring: 

YVES CAUCHON............Samuel Adams* 

NATHAN SHOURD.........Adam Belvo

MAEVE SHOURD........... Sara Fellini

JAMES MCINERNEY........Carl Danielsen*

JACK SHOURD.................Pete Oliver*

JAKAMO...........................Pierre Marais

FR. FALKE........................Ted Wold

JOSHUA...........................Eric Soto

NUNS:

Amy Higgs

Erika Phoebus

Cait Murphy

 

Lighting/Set Design: Joshua Rose,

Sound Design: Andy Evan Cohen,

Costumes: Tricia Bastian

 

Photograph: AnthonyCollins.nyc

 

Nominated for 3 2015 New York Innovative Theatre Awards:

*Outstanding Original Full-Length Script

*Outstanding Original Production (WON)

*Outstanding Direction (WON)

 

Laura Collins Hughes, The New York Times

"Wrenching and visually eloquent"

 

"Isaac James Byrne's high-energy production is by turns earnest and campy, wrenching and visually eloquent...dramaturgical jambalaya, flavored with the full-throated music of Jacques Brel"

 

"Bare-chested in a crown of thorns, he hangs out unseen in the kitchen, affably clutching a mug of coffee in hands with puncture wounds. It’s a comical image, but there’s force behind it. He would love to help these people, if only they’d realize he was there." - 

 

Corbin Went in The New York Theatre Review:

"In addition to her elegant use of metaphor, Sara Fellini employs a cadre of priests to examine hypocrisy, greed, guilt, denial and faith, and a sacristan (played by Fellini herself) to foil them all. Questions are raised; secrets are revealed in time, each revelation well earned and well-balanced, even as the play tilts violently, often just shy of capsizing. The upshot is a thrilling and dangerous ride. Her scenes are well paced and almost never bloated; her monologues, particularly one half-nightmare half-feminist-opus, are worthy of filling audition rooms across the country; her schizophrenic sense of humor might not be for all tastes, but those who are tickled by the idea of a man in full arm casts making a sandwich that he will never be able to eat will be very happy in this room. Fellini's sense of the ridiculous and Isaac James Byrne's ability to stage the absurd keeps the play buoyant even while it descends into its feverish finale.

 

Performances are above par across the board, with a particularly intriguing job from Samuel Adams, who plays Father Yves, a young, charismatic priest who acts (for a time) as our moral center. [Sara Fellini] gives a tremendous performance as Maeve Shourd, though she sometimes overpowers her scene partners early in the play, eyes wide with expectation and daring before the stakes seem high enough to warrant such intensity. Adam Belvo's Father Nathan Shourd, older brother to Fellini's Maeve, is an intricately drawn character played with understated honesty; from his entrance his sin literally clings to him in the shape of [Peter Oliver], whose wordless performance of the ghost of the younger brother is beautifully weighty.

 

These performances and Byrne's frenetic staging (the space is very narrow so keep your toes tucked) bring a real sense of danger to the audience as plates are smashed and Jesus gets some blood on your pants, but it isPierre Marais' turn as the enigmatic and absurdly attractive Jakamo that really forges the production's relationship to the audience. From his opening number to his smokey silhouette presiding over the grim last supper, Jakamo is the character that infects with delight and terror both. If you are not familiar with the material, his flawless take on the songs of Jacques Brel will leave you disappointed at your taste in music." - Corbin Went, NYTR

 

Doug Strassler in the Garden State Journal

"...an intense, sometimes volatile, occasionally challenging in-your-face play written by performer Sara Fellini..."

"...In Vestments is a perfect marriage of potent material and universal themes."

"Adams, Belvo, Carl Danielsen and Ted Wold captivate in their respective roles, and Fellini commands this makeshift stage with some confessions of Meave’s own..."

"The heroic Joshua Rose also deserves many a plaudit for fashioning resourceful scenic and lighting design in a space not typically equipped for the arts."

"In Vestments is all-encompassing theatre: old-fashioned stakes paired with contemporary storytelling savvy."

 

Eric J Grimm - Theater Pizzazz

"Sara Fellini’s new play In Vestments confidently goes for unholier-than-thou status in its site-specific church setting. 

 

Fellini’s priests are all distinct characters with compelling motivations. Disabled Father Nate (Adam Belvo) is deeply sympathetic to his parishioners, but battles addiction and a demon (Peter Oliver) that often obstructs him and keeps him immobile. Father McInerney (Carl Danielsen) is all heart and mostly poised as he faces off against the corrupt Father Falke (Ted Wold) over the direction of the church. Father Yves (Samuel Adams) drives the plot, emerging with striking blue eyes (a testament to the intimacy of the space) and gentle Cajun charm to save the decrepit church. Though Yves is seemingly the most stable of the motley crew, his charismatic demon (Pierre Marais) taunts him with Jacques Brel tunes. Adams slyly plays the young priest’s torture throughout, hiding immeasurable sadness behind a comforting grin. Director Isaac Byrne carefully maneuvers all of the characters in and out of the small space allowing for a manic but controlled atmosphere.

 

A second act monologue represents Fellini’s best writing; it reveals so much about Maeve without going into specifics and highlights the dangers of being a woman and a caregiver. Her performance, fairly intense up to this point, becomes restrained and unbearably sad. Amidst moments of exhilarating weirdness, Fellini manages to balance the show with her characters’ devastating emotional truths.

 

Read a story on In Vestments in the West Side Spirit. 

 

Developmental reading: directed by Isaac James Byrne at The Tank, February 2015

Featuring:

Adam Belvo, Jean Brassard, Connor Lyons, Ben Mann, Rico Rossetti, Antonio Thompson, Ted Wold

Stage directions read by Kaitlan Emery

Accompaniment by Rick Hip-Flores

Synopsis:

'When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.' - Horace Walpole

Father Yves Cauchon arrives to assist a decaying local parish when their Monsignor takes ill after drinking sacramental wine poisoned by pieces of plaster from the church itself falling from the ceiling into the chalice at the moment of transubstantiation— the turning of wine into the literal Blood of Christ, in the Catholic tradition. 

Father James, an old friend of Father Yves with an insight into his troubled past, attempts to smooth his transition into the parish while Father Nathan Shourd, a tattooed and drug addicted young priest haunted by his horrific mistakes, disintegrates. His sister, Maeve, keeps a close eye on the priests as she deals with her personal demons. 

The poisoned carafe of wine keeps mysteriously disappearing and popping up hidden in dangerous and precarious places as the priests, and the sacristan, come to terms with their own respective flavors of poison. 

Personalities clash, emotional ties are challenged, and lies and deception culminate in the accidental murder of the hated pastor. Now they must each deal with the aftermath of their unhealthy decisions and personal investments.