Character Development in Stephen Adley Guirgis' "Our Lady of 121st Street"

Stephen Adly Guirgis' play, Our Lady Of 121st Street, is a marvelous theatrical construct of masterfully written dialogue, sparkling witticisms, and scenic brevity, but lacks substantive character development.

The play opens at a funeral home with a compelling line, "What kinda fuckin' world is this?!" (Guirgis 5) The body of Sister Rose has been stolen from her casket and the two characters discussing this outrageous fact are an alcoholic flask-nipping cop (who off-handedly alludes to the event that started his drinking problem) and a man whose pants have been stolen while he spent the night in the funeral parlor. In the play's first expression of irony, we note that the pant less man's name is Vic. (He immediately clarifies for the benefit of the cop-and us-that his name is Victor-another bit of irony.) So, right away we know that we're in a "serio-comic" milieu. "Serio", because Sister Rose is clearly "Our Lady Of 121st Street" and Guirgis uses the impending funeral as the dramatic touchstone for character development-it's what each character comes into the play to encounter. He also uses her absence (and, ironically, presence) as a way of illuminating how these characters (and we) regard those who "do good".

It's a "comic" play because the act of stealing a dead nun's body from a funeral home is so outrageous that it becomes ridiculous. And this is the brilliance of Guirgis' play: he comfortably straddles the serio-comic realm with gritty and believable dialogue, quick witticisms full of multiple meanings, and breathtakingly quick scene changes. But, where the play falls short of plumbing artistic depths is in its adherence to the pace and deliciousness of its glossy comedic surface.

Every scene in Act I introduces new characters-there are 12 in all-in new situations with the common denominator being the need to attend Sister Rose's funeral. Every scene also introduces character dilemmas-each character has a flaw, if you will, that they must face in the course of the single evening of the play. So, by the end of Act I, we are concerned with 12 character dilemmas! And this is the play's flaw: there isn't enough time in the second Act to deeply explore each of those character dilemmas for universal truths, archetypal meanings, or satisfying dramatic resolutions. The character development of Act II advances like a pinball game: if the play's central issue-the pinball-is what effect Sister Rose had on each character and how that prompted their arrival in the play, Guirgis bumps it around so that it bounces off a moment here, a moment there, points are scored-character flaws are light-handedly revealed-and the play's over without a tilt. The final scene is a wrap-up of what we have already deduced about the two characters in the first scene: the alcoholic flask-nipping cop is still hurting from the death of his son, and Vic realizes that "this is the world", i.e., bad things happen to good people.

Ironically, Guirgis' dialogue writing, scenic structure, and characterization skills are such that we cannot help but want more from the play. Sadly, it's not forthcoming. Our Lady Of 121st Street, like a person's body after death, becomes the compelling remains-the after-theatre-over-drinks conversation piece-that we wish we had more of.

Work Cited

Guirgis, Stephen Adly. Our Lady Of 121st Street. New York: Faber and Faber, 2003.