By Shawn Macdonald. Directed by Patrick McDonald. An Arts Club production. At the Revue Stage on Wednesday, March 4. Continues until March 21

There might be an audience for this play. But it’s small and I don’t think they go to the theatre.

In Sister Judy, Vancouver playwright Shawn Macdonald explores crises of faith—specifically, crises of Catholic literalism. At a Catholic university, Frank, a priest who teaches literature, questions whether the host actually becomes the body of Christ during Communion, as the doctrine of transubstantiation would have us believe. In the central storyline, a nun named Judy, who teaches history, is rocked when Ruth, one of her students, brings forth compelling evidence that the Jesus of the gospels never existed and Christianity as we know it is a redo of much older Egyptian myths.

I don’t know about you, but the question of transubstantiation doesn’t keep me up at night. And it’s clear to me that Christianity is a myth—albeit a powerful one. I suspect that my views—or variations on them—are common and, because the theatre is a place of questioning, it skews towards liberalism. So how many theatregoers will care about the conservative Catholicism in Sister Judy?

One could argue that Sister Judy is also an exploration of love, and the attendant themes of fear and responsibility. And it’s true: Judy sought solace in the convent after an affair went sideways; for her, God offers a safely abstract simulacrum of intimacy. But who isn’t familiar with the idea that faith-based celibacy can be unhealthy? And who doesn’t know that a lot of priests and nuns use alcohol to blunt their loneliness—as Frank and Judy do here?

In terms of structure, it takes too long for the crises to arrive.

All of that said, the characters that Macdonald has created are appealing in many ways, and his dialogue is often funny. “I’m a nun,” Judy says, introducing herself to a new class. “What can I say? It’s a habit.”

And Jenny Wasko-Paterson, who plays Judy, is lovely to watch. There’s a big revelation in the script; I won’t give it away, even though you can see it coming for miles, just as surely as you can see the lights of Winnipeg when you’re driving across the Prairies at night. But, when it hits, Wasko-Paterson’s face shatters from the inside, and the texture, the physical consistency of her character, is transformed for the rest of the play. We should see much, much more of this woman on Vancouver stages.

Playing Frank, Mike Wasko is also strong in his trademark combination of vulnerability and calm authority. Unfortunately, on opening night, Lili Beaudoin’s performance as Ruth was less consistent: a bumpy combination of emotional honesty and often-forced delivery.

Ted Roberts’s set makes the tiny playing area in the Revue Stage feel surprisingly large, but that’s partly thanks to an ill-defined area in the middle.

If you’re a conservative Catholic in crisis, by all means check out Sister Judy. If you’re not, Sister Judy will probably neither challenge nor comfort you.