Good intentions and sad realities come into focus in the telling of the demise of the Greenwich Village institution, St. Vincent’s Hospital. A question is posed. “How do we hold a memory when all the bricks are gone?” Novenas For a Lost Hospital mashes up 160 years of vivid life serving a community from the cholera epidemic of 1849 to the HIV/AIDS crisis and 9/11.
Elizabeth Ann Seton (Kathleen Chalfant) was the first American canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. She created the first parochial girl’s school and founded the Sisters of Charity. From that order, four nuns from Maryland arrived in New York to start an orphanage. A hospital to serve the poor followed with thirty beds. From those humble beginnings grew a major city hospital.
One of the nine novenas contained in this remembrance is “the beauty of chaos.” One neighborhood resident fondly remembers St. Vincent’s emergency room. That’s “where you go when you need a big dose of mayhem.” She’s played by Kelly McAndrew, a standout in multiple roles amidst a strong cast of actors.
This hospital served everyone regardless of religion and ability to pay. In our current political climate many of our elected leaders and corporations fight to reduce providing health care to its people. This history is definitely worth reflecting on. Rather than sisters of charity, today we have the land of the $100 million health insurance CEO.
The structure of this play is an interconnecting fantasy of assorted doctors, nurses and patients from various ages of the hospital’s existence. Mother Seton was “my favorite hallucination” says an AIDS patient (Ken Barnett) who survived the plague. His choreographer boyfriend (Justin Genna) did not, noting “everyone is getting better but me.” All of the characters from different eras pop in and out to shed light on this hospital’s history while also commenting on societal injustices.
Pierre Toussaint (Alvin Keith) is another historical figure who helps frame the period. He was a slave from Haiti brought to New York. Eventually freed, he became a leading black New Yorker who contributed and raised funds to help build St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was the first layperson buried in the crypt below the main altar. In 1996, the church declared him “venerable,” a major step toward becoming a saint. Helping to grow the tax-free financially lucrative business of religion might be the sarcastic (if likely accurate) interpretation. But I digress.
Written by Cusi Cram, Novenas For a Lost Hospital similarly digresses and quite often. Racism and genocide are addressed. “Slaves laid the bricks in this area for land stolen from the Indians.” On the realities of health care: “sometimes Humpty Dumpty can’t be put back together again.” Science and religion are “uneasy bedfellows.”
“It’s not like the Catholic Church is the only sexist institution.” There are frequent jabs at a misguided America throughout. With bipartisan neglect, we “bail out banks but not hospitals.” The rebukes are sharp and sometimes very on point: “late stage capitalism will literally kill us all.” When Susan Sarandon is rebuffed twice for her comments about not taking her kids to St. Vincent’s, the message gets diluted. Was that a personal vendetta requiring a repeated slap across the face?
There are so many reasons to celebrate and not forget what this institution meant to those in need. When the fourth candle is lit and you realize that there are nine novenas in total, all the side tracking began to take its toll on my endurance. Regarding surgical theater, did we really need to hear a doctor quip “free theater, the best kind”?
This production begins with a musical prologue in the courtyard of St. John’s in the Village. The audience is then escorted around the corner to the theater. We are encouraged to linger at old photos of the hospital through the years, cholera notices and ACT UP marches. At the end of this play, everyone travels outside to the AIDS memorial for a solemn moment of reflection.
Novenas For a Lost Hospital is certainly a well-intentioned historical remembrance worthy of serious contemplation. As a theatrical event, however, most sections and scenes are far too elongated. How many times do we need to see the choreographer dance? When this meditation hits the bulls-eye and makes a hugely pertinent point, the impact is very powerful. Without a charitable hospital which serves the less fortunate, “where do we go the next time there is an epidemic?” Indeed, where do we go?
The world premiere of Novenas For a Lost Hospital is being presented by Rattlestick Theater through October 13th.