Western drama has its origins, or at least the roots of its revival after the Dark Ages, in the liturgical activities of the Church. A play, therefore, written by a priest, on a great and controversial issue of the day and performed in the sanctuary of a church, might reasonably be expected to be good theater, good propaganda, or both. Or at least a good statement of the author’s belief. It was with that expectation that I went to see The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Father Daniel Berrigan and my disappointment was great. Not, to be sure, that I had expected to come away convinced or even in doubt, being as I am both familiar with and disapproving of the activities and writings of the Berrigans. But I had not expected a dull evening— and I just do not understand, charitably, how Clive Barnes, the New York Times’ drama critic, could write: “Like so many courtroom dramas, it makes a positively riveting play.”
The action and the statement are confused even as I have suspected the author is. The single scene is the court in which Father Daniel Berrigan, his brother Philip and seven others were tried, and convicted, of burning 378 Selective Service draft files on May 17, 1968 in Catonsville, Maryland. I do not know to what extent the dialogue and action are faithful to the proceedings in court; I did not read the transcript of the trial nor do I think it important. The play stands as Father Berrigan’s Statement, even if it is his Restatement.
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