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The purpose of this visit is not nostalgic piety, but flaming accusation. The foursome unfold tales of a mother's agonizing death by cancer, of rape, homosexuality and abortion. It is a cumulative defihurled at the nun, daring her to answer the question that she ducked during the lecture: "If God is all powerful, why does he allow evil?" The Sister's response is so malignant and melodramatic that it practically blows away the play.
Durang must know that the existence of evil is not proof that God does not exist. That is a boy's debating point, but then, the play is rather like a clever boy's mocking revenge. At the risk of skirting blasphemy, one must salute Elizabeth Franz's formidable Sister Mary Ignatius as an in carnation of God's wrath.