The Last Confession

Synopsis

The Vatican 1978: a little-known Cardinal from Venice is elected to succeed Pope Paul VI. A compromise candidate, he takes the name Pope John Paul I, and quickly shows himself to be the liberal the reactionaries within the Catholic Church most feared. Just thirty-three days later, he is dead. No official investigation is conducted, no autopsy is performed, and the Vatican’s press release about the cause of death is later found to be, in large part, false. And just the evening before his death, John Paul had warned three of his most influential but hostile Cardinals that they would be replaced. His death marks the climax of fifteen troubled years of controversy and machination within the Church; schisms threaten its unity and the shadow of the Mafia hovers over its financial affairs. Only Cardinal Benelli has the power to challenge the dead Pope's enemies. This incisive thriller tracks the dramatic tensions, crises of faith and political manoeuvrings inside the Vatican surrounding the death of the man known as 'the Smiling Pope’

Our Review:

3 July 2007

There is a strange moment in the second act of Roger Crane’s play about the papal succession and politics in the Vatican when the innocent new Pope John Paul I protests to a stage full of cardinals that “I am what I am!” Surely these men in red frocks won’t break into a chorus from La Cage aux Folles?

No, they won’t, for this is a sombre, rather old-fashioned thriller, first seen at Chichester in May, that brings David Suchet back to the London stage as the scheming pope-maker Benelli, Cardinal of Florence, and offers him a fine opportunity to strut his ecclesiastical stuff.

The year is 1978 and Benelli is confessing his crime – “I have killed the emissary of God” – as the play begins, but things are a little more complicated than that. The great attraction of Crane’s play – the first ever by this 61 year-old New York lawyer – is its picture of a Catholic Church in turmoil.

Pope Paul VI (Clifford Rose) is dying, and the effects of the previo...

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Latest User Review

Lorna - 30 August 2007:

I couldn't better David Baxter's review below: stunning and fascinating. The audience yesterday laughed one minute, then there was an intake of breath, then such silence as to enable the hearing of the proverbial pin. Wonderful set and lighting, equally excellent performances by all, especially David Suchet. If you are interested in religion and/or politics, especially if you are interested in religious politics, try and get there before it finishes on 15 September. I'm off to the library to read up on the whole affair......

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