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David Suchet

The Last Confession

by Roger Crane

 

 

Transferred to London's West End for a ten weeks run after an opening at Chichester Festival Theatre April 2007 and a four weeks national tour
 
Running time: 2h 35min -1 intermission 
 
 

Director: David Jones

Set Designer: William Dudley

Costume Designer: Fotini Dimou

Lighting: Peter Mumford

Music: Dominic Muldowney

 
 
Cast     Synopsis     Notes
 
 
Run Sheet  
 
Opening:
Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester....... 27 April - 19 May 2007
 
UK Tour:
Theatre Royal Plymouth, Plymouth............... 29 May - 2 Jun 2007

Theatre Royal Bath, Bath.................................... 4 - 9 Jun 2007

Festival Theatre Malvern, Worcestershire..... 11 - 16 Jun 2007

Milton Keynes, Central Milton Keynes......... 18 - 23 Jun 2007
 
West End:
Theatre Royal Haymarket................ 2 Jul - 15 Sep 2007
 
 
Cast

 

David Suchet....... Cardinal Giovanni Benelli

Michael Jayston....... The Confessor

Richard O’Callaghan....... Cardinal Albino Luciani/Pope John Paul I

Bernard Lloyd....... Cardinal Jean Villot

Stuart Milligan....... Bishop Paul Marcinkus

Clifford Rose....... Pope Paul VI

Charles Kay....... Cardinal Pericle Felici

John Franklin-Robbins....... Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani

John Cormack....... Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio

Joseph Mydell....... Cardinal Bernardin Gantin

Michael Cronin....... Cardinal Leo Suenens

Joseph Long....... Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider

Roger May....... Monsignor Magee

Paul Foster....... Father Lorenzi

Christopher Mellows....... Dr. Buzzonetti & Thomas

Maroussia Frank....... Sister Vincenza

 
top 
 

 

Synopsis

 

1978: The reform-friendly Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days in office. The circumstances turn out to be suspicious; the evening before his death he had informed three of his most conservative and hostile cardinals that they would be dismissed, the Vatican's press release brings false informations about how he was found dead and there is no official investigation being made nor performed an autopsy.
 
The liberal Cardinal Benelli who engineered the election of his dear friend, can’t accept his death to be natural and starts his own investigation. The play starts and ends with the dying Benelli’s confession to his Confessor four years later revealing his anger, loss of faith, feeling of guilt of having left his friend "to the wolves" and his struggle with his own desire and ambitions of becoming a pope. The political events leading to the election of John Paul I, his death and Benelli's run for papacy (lost by only five votes) are told in flashbacks.
 

The play is based on real life characters and events: Giovanni Benelli was a senior Vatican official under Paul VI, who became a Cardinal and Archbishop of Florence in 1977. He supported his friend the unknown and humble Albino Luciani, Archbishop of Venice, in becoming Pope John Paul I in 1978. John Paul I turned out to have radical ideas, he wanted to reform the laws on divorce, artificial insemination, birth control, abortion - ideas that weren’t popular among the reactionary forces in the Vatican World. At the same time the Vatican Bank was involved in corruption and it was rumoured that the night John Paul I died, he had papers concerning those facts in his hands and that he wanted to "clean up". The Vatican’s press release was inaccurate about the time and manner of John Paul’s death and an official autopsy was never made - all incidents which soon gave life to speculations on foul play and conspiracy theories. When “God’s Banker” Roberto Calvi was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge with bricks in his pockets four years later, it revived those theories.

 

Benelli ran for papacy after his friend’s death, but lost to the polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyla, also known as John Paul II. Benelli died in 1982 and most of the other characters mentioned in the play have past away, too.
 

 

 

Notes

 

Suchet won the Variety Club Awards 2007 for best stage performance for his role in The Last Confession. Photos: Wireimage  Sky.com
 
The play sold out its entire run at Chichester Festival Theatre.
 
Director David Jones and Suchet also worked together in the RSC’s "Love’s Labours Lost" at the Aldwych Theatre back in 1975.
 
Playwright Roger Crane is 61 years old and works in New York as a lawyer. The Last Confession is a new play and his first.  
 

The production-team on the play had to rewrite a smoking-scene with Bernard Lloyd (Cardinal Villot) before showing in Haymarket Theater. The theatre's manager, Mark Stradling, “forced” the writers to alter the scene, as he feared prosecution due to a smoking-ban legislated 1 of July 2007 in UK in public spaces which includes theatres.  

 

Quotes:

Pope John Paul I wants to send one of his more "difficult” cardinals back to Venice...

The cardinal: “I'd sooner go to hell"

John Paul I: “That can be arranged…"

 

A couple of mp3 audio-files recorded during a performance... 
 
 
The Press wrote:

 

“Brilliantly combines grandeur with a sense of doom” - Sunday Times

“Fascinating, complex and fast moving” - Evening Standard

“A powerful play, with the cracking pace of a good thriller” - Daily Express

 
Summary of reviews on london.broadway.com 
 

 

My experiences with The Last Confession 
 
Gabor's experiences on closing night
 
You'll find interviews with Suchet about the play in the interviews-section : Suchet's act of faith, David Suchet, The Big Interview, the Simon Mayo interview on audio, and in the Links-section : the Ian Pierce interview on audio and a You Tube clip under Video.  
 
 
Remember to check the Gallery for related photos
 
 
 
  
 
                               
                                Cardinal Benelli (David Suchet) burns his
                                last confession...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
13th September 2007 © All rights reserved
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