For the fourth time during the summer, the Eucharist was trashed; this time it involved a play presented at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
“You’re Eating God” is a one-woman play by Rachel Caris that ran from July 23 to August 2 at Brown. The play, a production of the Brown University/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre, is about a family living in a backyard bomb shelter in the 1960s. “The title of the piece comes from one of its lines,” said Bryan Rourke of theProvidence Journal, “which one character delivers after seeing another character ravenously eat a pile of Eucharistic hosts.” He said that the play “satirically questions the conventions of Catholicism.”
The play’s webpage flags the following: “Warning! ‘Eating’ is an outrageous farce. It contains graphic language, sexual situations, and religious satire. Not for the faint of heart. Inappropriate for children and young teens.” On the same page is a picture of Caris drinking a soda in a diner booth with a statue of the Virgin Mary.
It would have been one thing if this play resembled Catholic schoolboy traditions and poked gentle fun at Catholicism. But that is not what this play was about: There is nothing gentle about mocking the Eucharist. This should be known by those who are Catholic or not.
The Brown University/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre was founded for emerging playwrights to hone their skills and development. The program’s website states:
“Brilliant young writers who are already developing a national reputation are invited to Brown for six weeks each summer. Working with a carefully assembled company of gifted professional actors and directors, playwrights become deeply engaged in the production process— attending rehearsals daily, shaping and refining their texts as each new play is born. The result is some of the most imaginative and adventurous theatre to be seen anywhere in America.”
There is nothing imaginative and adventurous about mocking the Eucharist. This mockery once again demonstrates that the elites of society will not target Muslim or Jewish beliefs, but they apparently feel free to bash Catholicism with impunity.
