The Catholic Culture Podcast: 154 – To Muck We Shall Return

Feb 27, 2023

Jane Clark Scharl discusses her play Sonnez les
Matines, in which a young Ignatius of Loyola, Jean Calvin, and
Francois Rabelais, together in 1520s Paris, find themselves
implicated in a murder.

Publisher’s description (from Wiseblood Books):

One Mardi Gras night in 1520s Paris, college students Jean
Calvin (founder of Calvinism and autocratic ruler of Geneva),
Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Counter-Reformation Catholic
religious order, the Jesuits), and their bawdy friend Francois
Rabelais (the humanist novelist) find themselves mixed up in a
gruesome murder—and any one of them might be guilty. The ensuing
investigation sparks a battle of wits and weapons, plunging them
into questions of justice and mercy, grace and sin, innocence,
guilt, love, and contempt. Before the bells ring in the start of
Lent, they must confront the darkest parts of their souls and find
the courage to pursue truth in a world that seems intent on
obscuring it. 

Sonnez Les Matines imagines what might have happened if
these three brilliant, volatile men had to put their convictions to
the test while navigating a brutal crime and their own involvement
in it. When left to his own devices, each character speaks in his
own verse form, giving the play the feeling of a fierce sparring
match between masters. Calvin’s blank verse toys with despair as he
wrestles with doubts about the goodness of God and the possibility
of freedom; Ignatius commands situations in clipped iambic
tetrameter, revealing his background as a disciplined soldier,
while his passion for order shows through in frequent alliteration;
and Rabelais dances around with iambic rhyming couplets, cracking
profane, bawdy jokes that unexpectedly become profound meditations
on the mysteries of God, creation, and grace.

Links

Tickets for March 8th performance of the play in NYC 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sonnez-les-matines-march-8th-tickets-554768656987

Buy the text of the play https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p127/Sonnez_Les_Matines%2C_a_Verse_Play_by_J.C._Scharl.html

“The Dream of the Rood: A New Translation” by
Tessa Carman and J.C. Scharl
https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/the-dream-of-the-rood-a-new-translation

Jane’s website https://jcscharl.com/

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