Controversy a Fluke for Playhouse

COSTA MESA —  People who never heard of the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse before the furor caused in September by its production of “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You” might conclude, from the safe programming since then, that the theater has had a change of heart about staging controversial works.

That would be the wrong conclusion.

Reviving Christopher Durang’s 1971 satirical farce about Catholic dogma was an aberration in the first place, playhouse founder Pati Tambellini said earlier this week. The 26-year-old amateur company had long been careful to avoid provocative fare.

Indeed, Tambellini said, “Sister Mary” had been selected as a last-minute replacement for “Born Yesterday” when rights abruptly were withdrawn because of a professional touring production. (Now that the rights are available again, Tambellini said, Garson Kanin’s light satire about a racketeer and his moll caught up in corrupt Washington politics and cultural snobbery will be staged in June).

“We had absolutely no idea ‘Sister Mary’ was going to offend anyone,” Tambellini maintained. “It was done strictly for entertainment. It wasn’t intended to make a statement about anything. We have never gone looking for trouble.”

Since “Sister Mary,” the playhouse has offered “Foxfire,” a gentle tribute to a hillbilly farm couple; “Return Engagements,” a romantic comedy about four couples over two decades, and the current “Once Upon a Mattress,” a musical setting of the children’s story “The Princess and the Pea” (see accompanying review).

“We picked our entire season long before we got into trouble,” Tambellini said, underscoring the assertion that the playhouse’s recent offerings cannot be seen as any sort of retreat from principle.

The productions that preceded “Sister Mary” last season further bear out Tambellini’s contention that the playhouse has no agenda for provocation. They were “Fatal Attraction,” a thriller about the murder of a movie star; “Baby,” a musical comedy about three couples having a baby; “Cat’s Paw,” about a terrorist holding a hostage to protest environmental pollution, and “Love, Sex, and the IRS,” a comedy about tax cheating that is as innocuous as its title.