Culture

Prospect recommends: Love the Sinner

May 04, 2010
Drew Pautz's Love the Sinner promises fierce debate on religion and sexuality
Drew Pautz's Love the Sinner promises fierce debate on religion and sexuality

 

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Love the Sinner, by Drew Pautz Dir Matthew Dunster, National Theatre, 4th May-17th June, Tel: 020 7452 3000

Drew Pautz is an unusual Canadian playwright, raised in Toronto but living in London, who produces his own multi-media work, collaborates with edgy dance companies and is developing projects with the Met Film School as well as the National Theatre studio. His debut play at the Soho Theatre two years ago, Someone Else’s Shoes, was a witty and well written study of ownership in art and relationships, and won Pautz many admirers. His new commission for the National, Love the Sinner, is therefore a crucial step in his progress and promises fierce debate around the issue of the ordination of homosexual priests in the Anglican church. It explores the ethical culture clash that results after a British conference volunteer has a gay sexual encounter with a hospital porter during an African congress of church leaders.

The National has entrusted the play to rising young director Matthew Dunster, who spent four years at the Young Vic and gave a vivid account of one of Shakespeare’s trickiest plays, Troilus and Cressida, at the Globe last summer. His notable cast includes Jonathan Cullen as the volunteer and Fiston Barek (making his professional debut) as the porter.

This article originally appeared in the May 2010 edition of Prospect.