American playwright John Pielmeier's Agnes of God opens in the Sanlam Loft of the Playhouse complex on March 23.
Directed by Murray McGibbon, this drama - described as being "of striking lyric beauty and dramatic force" - ran on Broadway for two years in the early 1980s and was brought to the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre by Pieter Toerien with Sandra Duncan, Pauline Bailey and Lena Farugia in the cast.
The film version starred Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly, the latter two earning Oscar nominations.
Agnes of God centres on the question of whether Sister Agnes, a Catholic nun, is mad or sainted.
CONFLICTING
The play is described as a fierce exa- mination of man's conflicting needs for rational certainty and for mystery and faith. Sister Agnes, 21, is accused of bearing a child in the convent and strangling it with its umbilical cord, none of which she can now remember.
Court psychiatrist, Dr Martha Living- stone, is convinced that the innocence of this magnetic, beautiful young woman hides the scars of her childhood.
But the convent's worldly Mother Superior, Mother Miriam Ruth, believes that Agnes is blessed and a battle ensues between Mother Miriam Ruth, who wishes to protect Agnes's fragile spirit, and Dr Livingstone, who wants to heal her shattered mind.
Agnes of God runs until April 21.