“Mass Appeal,” a comedy-drama by Bill C. Davis, is a risky choice for the second show in the Peterborough Players’ initial winter season. Its plot involves hot-button issues in the Catholic Church, but they are the issues of the 1980s, not today.
Like Father Tim Farley, one of the two characters, I remember when a hot question for Catholics was whether to chew or swallow whole the Host in the sacrament of communion. But more recent outrages are too fresh in our memories to ignore – or to mine for comedy.
There are some belly laughs in Mass Appeal, but it works best as drama – the archetypal conflict of youth versus age. Father Farley, beautifully played by Gus Kaikkonen, is “the most tactful priest in the diocese.” His sermons are funny and he never rocks the boat.
But in the eyes of Mark Dolsen, a young seminarian assigned to Farley, the priest is a purveyor of “song and dance theology.” In an energetic performance by Adam Sowers, we see Dolsen’s burning desire to confront his parishioners. He doesn’t want to make them chuckle on Sunday mornings; he wants to wake them up.
At first, Father Farley accuses Dolsen of being a “Bangladesh granola- head.” But the young man’s passion begins to undermine his own complacency. Dolsen is a bumbler, but a heady one.
The climax is predictable; the resolution is not. What I like best about the Peterborough Players is its willingness to take on risky subjects.
Like the firebrand seminarian, Mass Appeal occasionally stumbles, but it makes you think.