“From all things evil,

Dear Lord, deliver us…”

The year is 1345. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris is at last completed. At the same time, a new age of humanism, sweeping through Europe, makes such grand testaments to faith seem almost an anachronism. 

Father Emile Bergeron is the most virtuous of men, a protector of orthodoxy during a most faithless and perverse time, the Fourteenth Century, that many have said mirrors our own.

Bergeron is unmoved by the temptations of the world until, perhaps aided by the workings of the witch, Genevieve DeVries, whom the villagers call “Our Lady of the Heath,” he becomes obsessed with “the little nun,” Sister Constance Granetiere of the Sisters of St Jean Baptiste and is delivered body and soul to his age-old enemy, the fleshly tempter that the Church calls by the name of Asmodeus, but Bergeron calls, more simply, The Enemy.

The priest’s struggle to banish his devils has tragic results for himself, Sister Constance and the world he inhabits.

From All Things Evil is a psychological horror story filled with magic and passion, both fleshly and spiritual, that lays bare what one critic described as the clash “between Dionysius and Apollo” that is so much a part of the human condition.

About the Dramanovella

John Steinbeck pioneered the hybrid literary form that he called the “play novelette.”  Among those efforts were Of Mice and Men and Burning Bright.

Steinbeck’s efforts met with indifferent critical comment.  Most often the critics said the hybrid made the novelette seemed cramped when it was squeezed into the demands of the stage.  I think, though that they were a bit premature in their dismissal.

The demands of the stage, when Steinbeck wrote, meant, for the most part, the one set “kitchen dramas” of the Thirties and Forties which adhered to the classic unities of time, place and action.  In today’s less restrictive theatrical conventions, it may well be time to haul out the concept again.  Instead of calling the result a play-novelette which, with apologies to Steinbeck, seems a little clumsy, I call it the dramanovella.

About this New Version

From All Things Evil began as a stage play.  However, I realized that the play script has a limited appeal, so I decided to turn it into short novel by adding narrative, but still keeping the dialogue as it was.  Essentially, the dialogue can be lifted directly from the novella and staged without further adaptation.

In the process of rewriting it, I made some drastic changes in the original.  It was based on the Seventeenth Century witch trial of Charlotte Cadiere and her confessor Fr. Jean Baptiste Girard, but the story I actually wrote was so far removed from that historical event that I could no longer call them by those names.  In the re-write, they become Father Emile Bergeron and Sister Constance Granetiere.

The narrative form also allowed me to fill out the world in which the drama takes place and more fully realize the characters.  I am acting as director, scene designer, actor, costumer and dramaturge all in one.  The great thing about being a writer is you get to play all the parts.

This new version of the play fills out the motives of the characters within the dialogue better than the original which was, I do admit, the work of a much younger man and lacked some subtlety and nuance.  Yet the subject of the play and the issues are, I think, important enough to revisit and update. The most vulnerable of men are those who claim to be the most virtuous.

As Brother Rashad al Asir, the Moorish Inquisitor, says at the end of the story, “He was not a good priest. If a man, ordained or not, lives to serve God and humanity, then he is a good priest; if he lives to be a good priest, he serves only himself and accomplishes the opposite of what he intends.”  He raised his had to stop further discussion of the matter.  “No!  Reverend Mother.  Without conscience, without, pity, without love, he gave himself to the very evil he professed to fight.”

It is through the dialogues with The Enemy that we discover the root of Father Emile’s struggle, a passion for the Eternal that results in his doing everything necessary to get the opposite of what he wants.  What he fails to realize, with tragic results, is that he cannot deny his carnal self.  As in many things, what we fail to make our ally will become our adversary.  

“Why do you call me demon?” The Enemy says.  “I am none.  Once I was a god, the Lord the Giver of Life.  Now see what you and your church have made of me, a demon, a vagabond, whose only contact with the people I love must come through that harlot on the heath!  I am not your enemy; I am your ally if you would have it so.  I am here to help you become a true priest.

“Once you were a true priest, Emile.  I first met you on the wind-scarred mountains of the north when, dressed in animal skins and antler-crowned, in a state of near death your soul cried out to me for succor.  I was with you at Nemi when you stood, sword in hand, to defend the goddess of the hunt.  In Greece, you danced naked in the rain before the altar of Dionysius, and in Rome you drank the blood of bullocks freshly killed in sacrifice to Bacchus.  You have always been a priest, Emile, but see what a sterile mockery of the priesthood you have become!”

From All things Evil is in pre-publication. Acting versions of the playscript are available from the author.

*Photos from the Illinois State University production of From All things Evil, John Kirk, Director; Pat Atkinson, Scene Designer; Greg Slawko, Costume Designer; Lighting by Doug Flahaven.  Used by permission.

Critical acclaim for the ISU production of From All Things Evil:

The names of the characters have been changed to fit the current revision. Paragraphs pertaining to ISU and the ACTF that have little to do with the critique of the play have been excised as indicated with ellipses -- jm

Sense of Now in “Things Evil” 

By Jerry Klein, Journal Star

Normal – Jeremy McGuire’s new play, “From All Things Evil,” which premiered in Allen theatre at Illinois State University yesterday, has a powerful sense of now about it, even though its setting is a remote village in 14th Century France.
It is an epic struggle of conscience, filled with the heresies, sins and superstitions of its own time but reflecting with striking effect upon our own.
McGuire is a graduate of the ISU Theatre program, now teaching at North Dakota State.  His play, based on 18th Century witch trials in France, is being submitted as the ISU entry in he American College Theatre Festival.
It is a most worthy submission, not only because it is an original and well thought out work, but because it has depth and strength and is being given a performance that is lastingly persuasive.
Its bare-bones outline makes it sound quite sensational.  There is the impregnated young nun accused of being a witch and then being tried by her cold hearted lover, who is chaplain of the convent.
The real inquisitor is a man of compassion and understanding, and the mother superior hides her own dark secrets.  But it is potentially full of subtleties and insights that make it a profound, moving and even disturbing experience.
There are, to be sure, utterances that give one pause, “If beliefs are knowledge we can be sure of everything,” says the Inquisitor, “If knowledge is belief we can be sure of nothing.”  Or, “All worthwhile thought borders on heresy.  Besides, yesterday’s heresies are tomorrow’s dogmas.”
These philosophical two liners have the effect of stopping one, as if they deserve more momentous pondering than is allowable.  Or are they mere facile quips, intellectual baggage?
Perhaps it does not really matter in the end.  “From All Things Evil” struggles mightily with enduring issues of conscience, of rigid rules, of love.
John W. Kirk has assembled an excellent cast and motivated them proudly.  Christopher McIntire is brilliant as Bergeron, the young priest swollen with vanity and worldly ambitioin who refuses to confront his real self.
The unfortunate Sister Constance is strongly done by LynnWestbrook, And Bruce A. Young is a powerful and commanding figure as the Inquisitor.
Paula McGlasson adds another solid performance as the Abbess, seemingly austere and ethereal in her piety, but still quite alive in the flesh, and Jim Christian typifies the indolent official bureaucrat beautifully.
The part of the sorcerer, Genevieve DeVries, is played by Debi Woodard while Patty Zosky makes a most believable Theresa and Guy Vieg is a striking presence as The Enemy.
It is a strong production, distinguished for its detailed medieval costumes, designed by Greg Slawko, and its subtle lighting by Doug Flahaven and its intriguing setting by Pat Atkinson.

“Evil” Impressive Play

I didn’t  review the 15th Century religious play, “From All things Evil” when it was staged at Allen Theatre at Illinois State University seven weeks ago, so I have no way to compare that production with the one of he same play Saturday night on the larger stage of Westhoff Theatre. 
But I do know that Jeremy McGuire’s (he’s an ISU graduate) drama is a most impressive one, highlighted with some exceptionally fine acting by an eight member ISU cast…
 ..McGuire’s script is a gripping one concerning a priest in a small convent in France who schemes to free himself of the shame of an illicit romance with a young nun who becomes pregnant.
Father Emile Bergeron blames the nun, Constance Granetiere for her condition and Bergeron seeks to prove through and investigation by the Inquisitor (Bruce A. Young) that the nun’s pregnancy was caused by supernatural powers.
The sordid results are that Bergeron has a breakdown, the nun dies and all the other characters involved go through traumatic experiences due to Bergeron’s inhuman actions.
The play is a powerful one and the ISU cast turned in memorable performances Saturday night.
Christopher McIntire was excellent as the priest who slowly transforms from a self assured confessor in the convent to a man torn by his own evil intentions, and Lynn Westbrook as Constance was fine as the pitiful nun whose love for Bergeron prevents her from revealing that he is the father of her expectant child.
Young, with a powerful well controlled voice, was outstanding as the Inquisitor who wages a battle of wits with Bergeron and Paula McGlasson shown as the Mother Abbess who acts as a buffer between the two antagonists…
..James C. Christian as the Magistrate who presides over the “trail” of Constance, playes his role with compassion and good humor and Deborah Woodard as Genevieve DeVries, a sorceress, Guy Vieg as...[The Enemy]..and Patty Zoski as Theresa Renault, a novice, added finesse to their characterizations.
John w. Kirk … directed this powerful play with understanding and feeling, it is hoped, to the satisfaction of playwright McGuire. 
The five plays [of the festival] were staged between Thursday and Saturday nights.  Five plays in 48 hours may be a little much even for the most avid of theatre goers, but the fact that many in the Saturday night audience saw all the plays and were able to sit “spellbound” through the heavy “From All Things Evil” attests to the high quality of the play and the interest it instilled in the audience.

“From All Things Evil” has great appeal  

      By Steve Zabroski, The Vidette

Ad Mala Patriata Haec Sunt Altra Theatra Parata.
“Dark Theatres are Suitable for Dark Deeds” is how you would read that fourteenth century church motto, and Allen Theatre was very dark indeed last week as From All Things Evil … was produced for the first time.

Director John Kirk and Doug Flahaven, graduate student lighting director, decided that from one’s very entrance to the theatre, the imposing black vault of the set, the almost non-existent light, and the majestic somber effect of Renaissance music transcribed for modern brass, would pull each member of the audience into the play’s portrayal of the twisting of once pure ideals.  They were certainly right.
Playwright Jeremy McGuire has also done some transcribing.  Those who inhabit his remote convent in France seem like gods themselves, or at least like modern people reacting to medieval situations.  On a Naturalistic level, it is hard to believe that a cloistered young nun could have burning questions about her identity and anxieties concerning her self-fulfillment.
Mr. McGuire has gone deeper, however, and his characters are complex and his situations easily become universal.  His hero is caught in a seemingly intractable, yet from its outset, unavoidable dilemma; as is often true with cerebral men, he is also a sensitive man of the flesh.
While these traits are by no means irreconcilable today, the only opportunities to a medieval man of intelligence were in the Church, which publicly opposed anything of a sensuous nature.  The hero/confessor’s struggle mirrors the internal struggle between Dionysus and Apollo that occurs in each of us, but also stops to ask, “Why does this have to be?”
Christopher McIntire as the Confessor, Emile Bergeron, gave a suitably energetic performance, wrestling with his own conscience which sin drove him to call “devil.” 
Guy Vieg, The Enemy, the god of goodness who eternally blunts the weapons of our internal antagonists, again was crucified on a tree of delusion and despair.
The convent’s Mother Superior, Paula McGlasson, a true survivor who made her own choosing long ago, was frightening.  While taking away some abilities, Apollo does grant some concessions to his followers; the Mother Phillip’s explosive violence was quiveringly exposed through Ms. McGlasson’s devotion.
The setting, by graduate student Pat Atkinson, was the most well adapted to its play of any I have seen in Allen Theatre.  I usually perspire in Allen, but this set, with its black columns and vaulted ceiling, made me think of dripping water and dark moss on cold stone.  I had buttoned up my sweater even before the play began.
“From All Things Evil” is a powerful and frightening play, and, as it is being performed now, should open many eyes to a thoughtful new playwright.  …We have hopefully not heard the last of “From All Things Evil.”