Beginning March 4 and ending March 14, there will be 12 performances of the play, “‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore,” at New York Performance Works, a downtown New York theater. The play was written by John Ford in 1633 during the English Renaissance. It has been called a “bloody revenge tragedy” that features incest, stabbing and poisoning. The play is being produced by the Wide Sky Theatre Company in association with the New York Performance Alliance.
The postcard that was sent to prospective theater-goers advertising the play shows an illustration of the Virgin Mary with the Immaculate Heart; the inscription, “‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore,” is written across her. It was sent by the Actors Equity Association.
Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:
“New York Performance Works told me that the play is not about Catholicism. Indeed, I was told that the decision to put an illustration of the Virgin Mary on the postcard was ‘the personal choice’ of the company. Not surprisingly, their friends at Actors Equity disclaimed any responsibility for the advertisement.
“In the recently released Catholic League’s 1998 Report on Anti-Catholicism, I commented that ‘There is something perverse going on in the artistic community.’ What the New York Performance Works has now done adds to the legacy of anti-Catholicism that marks this community.
“The fact that this sick play is being shown in some dump for just a few weeks suggests that it isn’t worth getting too excited about. But the postcard illustration is worth noting: there is something about Our Blessed Mother that the depraved can’t stomach.”
