The Chancellor's Tale

It's also about the perils of being male and female, homosexual and heterosexual, in an organization that says we are all one

Like every other organization involved in power struggles, the church has winners and losers

The theme of this play is personal survival - how people create niches on the great scaly walls of monolithic organizations, places in which they can be safe, places from which they can jump

The time is now and the place a church in an American city. A radical pastor triggers the problem by his witnessing of a union between two lesbian women

His action creates a dilemma for the chancellor who oversees the diocese: should the church discipline the priest and remove him from his parish or should he just be encouraged to pursue a quieter ministry which includes homosexuals?

Demanding rigorous action against the pastor is a fellow priest, Peter, who is a friend of the chancellor

Peter becomes even more alienated as he uncovers the chancellor's vacillation. Meanwhile a friend of the liberal pastor, an outspoken woman who teaches theology at a local Catholic college, helps the pastor confront his mixed motives in challenging the church

At the same time she forces a heartbreaking resolution of his relationship with her

Caught in the middle, the chancellor tries desperately to balance these powerful forces only to find them, lethal and devastating, directed at him

The play catches an essence of this moment, and at the same time echoes of a thousand years ago - the liberal pastor and the female theologian could be Eloise and Abelard, just as the driven conservative priest could be the inquisition!

An insightful and adult play that is written with great power and deeply moving sensitivity