The Runner Stumbles...Stumbles

After reading the promos I had been expecting something like Agnes of God--mystical, a bit mysterious, and finally unsettling. But instead I got talking. Way too much talking. I know a play is based on, well, talking, but the staging of Regent University's production of Milan Stitt's The Runner Stumbles managed somehow--with one exception--not even to create a sense of action. The two leading actors, playing Father Rivard and Sister Rita, failed to generate the sort of emotional resonance that would turn their stock religious polarities into anything more than platforms for the widespread "free-spirited love = good," "rules = bad" pathology of American Christianity.