Two gay plays that attack Catholicism have been announced: in New York, from now through March 13, 1999, “Burning Habits” will be performed as an eight-part play at Here in SoHo, and from April 1-May 2, “Clean” will be done at the Chamber Theatre in Washington, D.C., a Studio Theatre Secondstage production.
“Burning Habits,” written by Blair Fell—no stranger to Catholic bashing—is a play that ran in London and New York in the mid-1990s. The play features an “evil Catholic witch” and three lesbian nuns. Future episodes will show, in Fell’s words, that “the overriding evil is the Church, and the force of good are queers.”
“Clean” was also performed a few years ago. What will delight the crowds this time is what worked last time: a script that calls for “the conversion of a drag queen and sins of a priest.” The play ends with an unambiguous attack on the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, responded this way:
“The Catholic Church does not find sodomy acceptable behavior. And for this it is pilloried as anti-homosexual. Such is the thinking among many of those who consider themselves highly educated, tolerant and respectful of diversity. Why they haven’t labeled the Church anti-heterosexual for its opposition to adultery is anyone’s guess.
“The hatred of the Catholic Church that is popular with much of the theater crowd is not seen as bigotry: it is seen as morally justified. To take one example, never, never, never have we seen an anti-Catholic play branded by theater reviewers for the New York Times as anti-Catholic; today’s review of ‘Burning Habits’ is the latest evidence. There is a reason for this, and it is the very same reason why the Catholic League exists.”
