The days of back-to-back features at the drive-in are long gone. But for those still seeking a two-for-one price in regards to entertainment, you might want to visit the Morgan-Wixson Theatre this month.

Throughout the month of May, the Morgan-Wixson will run two back-to-back satirical plays by American playwright Christopher Durang: “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You” and “The Actor’s Nightmare.” Both short plays offer fun, lighthearted and hilarious entertainment.

The first play, “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it all For You,” is centered on the Catholic religion. Sister Mary Ignatius (played by Joanna Churgin) opens up the show with a monologue of sorts, discussing the perils of Hell and Purgatory.

The show expands after that to include additional characters and eventually shifts to a more dramatic approach at the end, all while cleverly keeping the laughs appropriately in place.

Performing alongside Churgin is the young Brighid Fleming as the role of Thomas, one of Sister Mary’s current students. Despite the age difference against the rest of the cast, Fleming was a delight to watch.

Churgin also delivered a very solid performance with great acting and perfect comedic timing that had the audience laughing the entire time.

– Ingrid Rosales

Director Jeremy Aluma presents a bodacious one-act Christopher Durang play.

“Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You” is a satirical look at the complexities of Catholicism’s system of beliefs. This very amusing play is a lecture given by teaching nun Sister Mary Ignatius, played by the very talented and fearsome Joanna Churgin. That is until she is interrupted by four former students in the reunion to end all reunions.

Little Brighid Fleming who plays Thomas, the Sister’s student, was perfect – innocent as stuffed animals. The staging also does a cool trick near the end. The play, however, challenges a very old system of doing things: Catholicism. Durang does away with God by interrogating a horrible representative of the religion, the Sister, with all the major faith-based questions. A lot of people, perhaps Durang, are introduced to God and turn away from God because of a particular religion. And for Durang to try and answer all the big “God” questions using a skewed interpretation of Catholicism, even if it is within a comedic light, is tiresome.

[Author’s note: I am not Catholic.]

– Cesar Cruz

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You by Christopher Durang are featured at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theater through May 29. The acting is excellent, and in the case of Sister Mary superlative is a more apt description of Joanna Churgin and Brighid Fleming’s (Thomas) performances.

Churgin set the right tone with perfect comedic timing and a delightful singing voice. Shee infused her beliefs so definitively that her strict interpretation of Catholic doctrine left audience members laughing at the gaps in logic. As her seven-year-old student (she played a boy), Fleming glowed with an almost ethereal presence every time she came on stage. She recited commandments to earn cookies and obeyed Sister’s every command, including holding the gun on a former student at the end of the play.

It was almost impossible to take one’s eyes off the radiant and heavenly Sam Bianchini (Diane Symonds), who acted as the Virgin Mary in a skit for Sister Mary. Afterwards, Bianchini completely change character to an angry, dangerous woman.

Director Jeremy Aluma is to be praised for eliciting strong performances from all of his actors. The flow is good, and technically the shows are excellent.

Sister Mary is set in the 1980s and too many who are not aware of the changes that the Catholic Church made after the ecumenical council (1962 – 1963), including Mass no longer recited in Latin, the priest now facing the parishioners rather than the altar, Saint Christopher discarded as myth, and eating meat on Friday no longer a sin, the references may seem lost.

One could almost argue that Sister Mary, which was on the 10 Best Lists of the New York Times and Time Magazine, and during the 1980s was one of Durang’s most popular plays, is dated. But the Catholic Church’s dogma, regarding sexuality, specifically birth control, abortion, premarital sex and homosexuality, is still intact, making Durang’s rants viable. The overriding theme of authoritarianism and the damage it causes (given the extremism of religions that have wrecked havoc in the last 15 years in different parts of the world), can be viewed in a broader light in the playwright’s comments on Catholicism.

– Sue Pascoe