The Search for Xavier

An insider piece: set in a friary in Dublin, Ireland, in the late 60’s. A play centred on friars living in community - in poverty, chastity and obedience - in the immediate aftermath of Vatican Two but before the effects of that Council have really begun to take effect… Inside the cloister, behind closed doors.The status quo is shaken when one of the brethren disappears overnight; a young priest goes AWL… Worry… speculation… finally, consternation:the search for Xavier ends when it is established beyond doubt that he is in London and co-habiting with a female… A search that gives rise, in turn, to a searching of hearts…Why the 60’s?A modern audience will be able to look back/look into the Church as it was at that time;the strict regime of “the old days” had only just begun to give way to the changes and uncertainties resulting from Vatican Two;the old regime of “black is black - white, white” was slowly, inexorably, being eroded;the element of fear - correction, reprimand, punishment, transfer - loomed large in the clerical psyche;the shock waves caused by the defection of Charles Davis from the priesthood and the diocese of Westminster had only just begun to reverberate around the universal Church;the old certainties had begun to give way to the new uncertainties;when the term, paedophile, was far from common coinage;when the debate on clerical celibacy/married clergy was still in its infancy;when the aristocratic Pope Pius XII was still a vivid memory in the minds of the faithful;when the clerics and religious who lived at that time could not have foreseen the scandals that would rock the Church of the 90’s and subsequent decades…Briefly, a modern audience will be able to look back at the Church of the 60’s - a Church that no longer exists to any great extent - an era that formed their forebears; view it objectively and with a certain curiosity.Change, then, is the operative word. Church of change… of friction, dispute, challenge, doubt, uncertainty, the old absolutes gone for ever.There are several orders of friars/male mendicants in the Church - Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Carmelites etc. Each with its own insignia, rule. The Latin of the liturgy - Mass, Divine Office - is contrasted betimes with the music, laughter and bonhomie of a community at recreation. The song - Mary Anne - is a piece of nostalgia that was well known among the friars at that time. The chorus rouses them to join in… at the centre and again at the end… rising to crescendo… before giving way to moriendo…