Agnes of God by John Pielmeier
October 12, 13,19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 2007

Agnes of God is superficially about a psychiatrist who becomes more in touch with herself and her view of the world while she is analyzing Agnes, a nun barely out of her teens who has given birth in a convent to a child she is now accused of murdering. Agnes claims no memory or knowledge of the event, and her Mother Superior, Mother Miriam Ruth, insists that Agnes does not understand what happened.

Dr. Martha Livingstone, the court- appointed psychiatrist, seeks to find the truth of the matter hidden in Agnes's veiled and cloistered mind. Is she clinically insane, blinded by her faith, a shrewd liar, or just plain dumb?  A psychological war ensues between her and Mother Ruth over Agnes’s mental and spiritual health, and the play highlights the contrasts between science and religion, between the temporal and spiritual, and between facts and faith.

As Dr. Livingstone digs deeper, experiences in her own past threaten to destabilize the investigation and cast doubt on her motives and judgment, and explores the gulf between the secular modern world and the traditional beliefs of Christianity.