Heresy review, The Tabard

It is probably heretical to run a reviews website and not post a single evaluation for three weeks because there wasn't time, so let's tread carefully around Tilo Ulbricht's examination of the Spanish Inquisition, Heresy. To the Catholic Church of the 12th Century any non Catholic was a potential heretic. Jews and Mohammedans had no chance. Neither did the Cathars, a group of Christians who had only one sacrament, eschewed meat, and didn't believe in either sex or marriage.

This last fact points to the play's preoccupation with illicit relationships and celibacy. Only the Dominican monk, Don Domingo, has a legitimate reason for being chaste. Sex, however, is the least of Don Domingo's sacrifices at the altar of Catholicism. Across two and a half hours, he sacrifices any good sense and all good judgement when, as the Grand Inquisitor of Granada he is asked one Easter Monday to decide the fates of a group of people denounced as heretics. They include his mother, his childhood love, a man who may be his father, and a stranger who the entire region believes is Christ...

Heresy is deeply thoughtful and warms up after the first, wooden, scene-setting, half hour. Peter Saracen as Don Domingo is visually Mr Bean with a pudding bowl haircut and paranoid hysteria. There are no laughs in Daniel Zappi and Rachael Maya's production, however. It was priests like Don D who sentenced thousands of innocents to be burned alive. As ever, it's a big cast that takes over the tiny stage at The Tabard in Turnham Green, and Nick Simons performance as the elderly blind philosopher, Don Felipe is top dollar.

In conclusion: There is little action though the arguments are elegant, pitting well the anxiety of the Church against the push for democratic discourse by the Cathars. There is some genuine tension after the halfway point, but it's easy to zone out during Heresy unless you have a deep interest in the period, or in the veracity of the arguments.

References
Tabard Theatre, Tickets

Tabard Theatre, 2 Bath Road, London W4 1LW.     Run ends 22 March