REVIEW: Mass Appeal tackles religious themes in palatable ways

The Players’ Guild production is gorgeously staged and well-acted, and raises some laughs while pondering some of the thorny complexities of human nature, power, popularity, and truth.

The title of The Players’ Guild’s current production, Mass Appeal, is a play on words and a window into its plot. The play is a two-hander featuring Father Tim Farley, a comfortable, mild and complacent priest who enjoys the popularity he has built in his Catholic parish, and Mark Dolson, a local seminarian who becomes Farley’s new apprentice deacon. Dolson is passionate, direct, somewhat tactless, and determined to shake things up for what he considers the moral good. The story follows their interactions, the way they challenge one another’s principles, and the respect that gradually develops between them.

Guild co-directors David Dayler and Connie Spears say in the playbill that “Mass Appeal explores faith, doubt, tradition, and the courage it takes to question what we believe.”

Mass Appeal is on stage until Oct. 3. Steve O’Brien as Father Farley is a long-time lawyer, criminal defense counsel and Crown prosecutor who has performed in many local theatre productions with The Players’ Guild, Dundas Little Theatre, Theatre Burlington, and Theatre Aquarius. Brendan Green as Deacon Mark Dolson is a theatre studies graduate from the University of Guelph who has co-founded his own theatre production company and performed in a list of productions, including those of his alma mater, 9M Theatre, Femmpire, and Rogue Theatre. You may remember him from last season’s Guild production of Rotterdam. Both actors bring a commitment and zeal to their roles and a plot that depends on their ability to verbally spar with one another.

Mass Appeal was written by American playwright Bill C. Davis, and it became his most well-known and successful play. Davis attended Catholic schools as a child and graduated from the then-Catholic Marist College in New York. In his 2021 obituary by Deadline Hollywood, it was said that Davis wrote Mass Appeal during the time he worked at “a residential community for developmentally disabled and emotionally disturbed adults in Rhinebeck, NY.” His other works include Dancing in the End Zone, Wrestlers, Spine, Avow, Coming2Terms, All Hallowed, Jeremiah Rules, Expatriate, and Austin's Bridge. 

Mass Appeal premiered Off Broadway in 1980, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club and staged at Stage 73. Directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald, Mass Appeal starred Milo O'Shea as Tim Farley and Eric Roberts as Mark Dolson. Fitzgerald and O’Shea ended up receiving both Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for their work on the production, with the play receiving a further Drama Desk nomination for Best New Play. After a short run at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre, the play opened (with Michael O’Keefe as Mark Dolson) at Booth Theatre on Broadway in 1981. Mass Appeal opened in London’s West End the following year. Davis went on to adapt his play for the 1984 film of the same name starring Jack Lemmon as Tim Farley.

A highlight of the Guild production is the gorgeous set, all crimson and velvet and sumptuous with glorious faux stained glass windows that are the marvelous handiwork of Eileen McAnuff. One of the windows was recycled from the God and the Indian set, while the other is new. The set is divided between a pulpit and Father Farley’s rather opulent office. 

“Show, don’t tell” the saying goes, and Farley’s office shows that he’s gotten used to some of the finer trappings. Compliments to the set designers (including McAnuff, Trevor McAnuff and David Dayler), the set construction team as well as lighting design and lighting operation (Greg Kott and Mark Champion, respectively), who beautifully illuminate McAnuff’s works of art.

Co-director Dayler said that he saw Mass Appeal in the ’80s when it starred actor Milo O’Shea, and had wanted to do the play himself ever since. Dayler is joined in this production by Spears as his co-director; coincidentally, both directed God and the Indian at The Players’ Guild in 2024. The two plays share some thematic aspects, although Mass Appeal is described as a comedy-drama, while God and the Indian was a much more tense psychological drama.

I viewed this play as an agnostic who is, you might say, culturally Christian. While I’ve never been a Catholic, I am familiar with elements of Catholic church services, clerical roles, and the Church’s controversies, all which helped me keep up with some of the more subtle jokes in Mass Appeal. I don’t think the play requires that you be Catholic or even religious at all in order to understand its message, though it probably doesn’t hurt. Wholly non-religious theatre-goers will be able to follow the fault lines of conflict in the play between the well-established organization and its power structures, and the volatile new, fresh, and disruptive newcomer ideals. They will also find analogous examples within many a workplace, industry, political or community organization.

For me, God and the Indian remains the superior play from the Guild, with its Canadian lens, caustic bite, higher stakes, unflinching treatment of religious and psychological trauma, and ever-present threat of violence. I recall that God and the Indian was viewed as a risky choice in the Guild’s season nearly three years ago because it dealt with uncomfortable topics related to Christian churches and Indigenous cultural genocide, including residential school abuse, racism, homelessness, mental illness, and other long-term consequences of trauma.

Mass Appeal also tackles some controversial issues of the Church, but in a much different manner. It is a comedy-drama, and while it leans to the dramatic side, there is quite a bit of humour peppered throughout. When it discusses controversial topics like female ordination, the sexual activities of its seminarians, or even (slyly) slips in a mention about altar boys, there’s eventually a chuckle somewhere, and a generally milder tone. While the idealism and directness of Deacon Dolson emerges as the moral compass of the story, overall, Mass Appeal embodies the approach of Father Farley: be likable, don’t rock the boat too much, make it more palatable. 

I have already seen a number of positive social media posts about Mass Appeal by viewers who felt very well entertained by the production. When I viewed the play, the audience also appeared to enjoy the play quite well. While I cannot say this was the most satisfying Guild production for me personally, it was a solid production that provoked some thought, raised some laughs, and pondered some of the thorny complexities of human nature, power, popularity, and truth. All of these are noble products of theatrical pursuit, and I believe Mass Appeal will appeal to most of the Guild’s usual patrons.

NEED TO KNOW

Mass Appeal
Continues Sept. 24, 25 and Oct. 1, 2, 3 at 8 p.m. Sept. 26, 27 and October 3 at 2 p.m.
The Players Guild Studio Theatre
80 Queen St. S., Hamilton
Tickets here or box office: 905-529-0284
Run time: 110 minutes (including intermission)