‘Runner Stumbles’ restores luster to tarnished reputation of play

The lead actress does a
powerful job in her role.

By MILAN PAURICH

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Few things are more satisfying than rediscovering a play that’s fallen out of critical favor and realizing just how solid a work it really is. Milan Stitt’s “The Runner Stumbles” opened on Broadway in 1976 and played 396 performances, but it’s virtually unknown today. Kudos, then, to the Oakland Center for the Arts for dusting off Stitt’s overlooked gem and introducing it to a new generation of theatergoers.

Based on an actual 1972 case in which a Roman Catholic priest was accused of killing a nun he was in love with, “Stumbles” had the great misfortune to be turned into a very bad 1979 movie directed by hack extraordinaire Stanley Kramer (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”). Hopefully the Oakland’s exemplary production will help restore some luster to a play that’s much better than its tarnished reputation would suggest.

Set in the backwood community of Solon, Michigan in 1911, “The Runner Stumbles” is a courtroom drama that unfolds mostly in jailhouse flashbacks. Father Rivard (Chris Fidram, who also directed) stands trial for the murder of Sister Rita (an incandescent Laura Phillips) despite protestations of his innocence. The town’s hotshot young prosecutor (Eric McCrea) thinks the case is a slam-dunk, and even Father Rivard’s lawyer (the terrific Dan Black) doubts his client’s innocence. Only Mrs. Shandig (Barbara Evans), the priest’s loyal housekeeper, seems determined to stand by her disgraced former employer. “Truth,” however, isn’t as cut-and-dried as appearances would suggest.

We immediately sense a spark between Father Rivard and Sister Rita (“I’m a person who’s a nun, not a nun who used to be a person”) when they first meet. Possessed with an infectious joie de vivre, Sister Rita challenges Father Rivard’s rigid, outmoded concept of Catholic theology in which God is a punitive taskmaster. She believes that God represents love and everything that’s good about the world (lilacs and children top her list). It isn’t long before Father Rivard is confessing his love for Sister Rita, who represents a beacon of light and hope in his gloomy, regimented life (“Why should the church cause loneliness?,” he cries out in confusion and despair).

Stitt has a few tricks up his sleeve that he reveals at the end of Act Two. If the denouement smacks of “Perry Mason” hokiness, it’s still immensely satisfying in an old-fashioned kind of way. And it’s hard not to be moved by Father Rivard’s emotional devastation when he finally learns the truth about Sister Rita’s death.

After last season’s “Misery” and “Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will?,” which won well-deserved Marquee Awards for Denise Sculli and Lori Broderick, Fidram again proves that he’s one of the finest directors of actresses in local community theater. Phillips’ Sister Rita seems illuminated from within, and her radiance casts such a glow over the entire proceedings that the Oakland’s rather unprepossessing set seems permanently shrouded in darkness whenever she’s offstage. I doubt whether I’ll see a better performance by a leading actress anywhere all season.

Also superb are the formidable, fiery Evans, Broderick (who makes every second count in her too-brief role as one of Father Rivard’s parishioners) and Terri Labedz (an unreliable character witness for the prosecution who’s harboring a secret crush on Father Rivard). Black, McCrea and Clyde Holmes (as jailer-handyman Amos) are all excellent, and Fidram himself makes a surprisingly credible Rivard. I say “surprisingly” because the diminutive, eternally boyish Fidram doesn’t seem like the most obvious choice for the role of Father Rivard, yet he manages to give a powerful, deeply felt portrayal nonetheless.

The play’s somewhat cumbersome flashback/present day/flashback structure didn’t flow as smoothly as it should have on opening night, thanks to some minor lighting glitches. But everything else about the Oakland’s production of “The Runner Stumbles” was running on all cylinders. It’s so good that it just may restore your faith in community theater.

X“The Runner Stumbles” is playing weekends through Saturday at the Oakland Center for the Arts. For tickets and additional information, call (330) 746-0404.