I think Sister Mary Ignatius is a rather predictable character. I couldn't help thinking of her as Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. She acts moral and pious and kind, but beneath her habit, she is simply cruel. This is obvious from her first lines, " First there is the earth. Near the earth is the sun, and also nearby is the moon. (Sister smiles at the audience, and checks to make sure they have followed what she has said.)" The true heartless flesh of her character comes out little by little and, I think, is completely out in the open during her "Bleeeghhh" speech.
Durang's style is very controlled; from his stage directions to the dialogue between characters, everything is overtly intentional. I can imagine Durang combed through every word of this play until it was exact. "This is Thomas, he is seven years old and in the second grade of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow School," (382) Sister says, introducing the little boy (for whom we later see she has implied pedophiliac sentiments). "Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow School" is obviously not just a jab at the ridiculous names of Catholic schools; no, here Durang began to introduce the dominant tone of the play: Sister Mary and the Catholic Church are a miserable crew and make everyone else miserable.
Just as Sister's true colors are slowly revealed, so is Durang's message. Little intentional jokes are strewn throughout the dialogue and Sister's monologues. Ie: "then just dare to feel sorry for the children lining up outside of school" and "My father was big and ugly, my mother had a nasty disposition and didn't like me; and there were twenty-six of us. It took three hours just to wash the dishes, but Christ hung on that cross for three hours and He never complained." (384)--hilarious. Durang distributes similar comments rather sparsely in the beginning of the play. They are folded into Sister's more factual side of her lecture: "Venial sin is the less serious kind, like if you tell a small lie to your parents, or when you take the Lord's name in vain when you break your thumb with a hammer, or when you kick a barking dog." (385) (What a subtly great punch line. Notice how Durang shortly suspends this sentence).
But as the plot climaxes, every sentence becomes sardonic and direct:
Sister: "Jesus is going to throw up....Bleeeeeeeeeeeeggghhhh. You make me want to 'bleeeeegghhhh.' (To all four sutdents, angry.) Didn't any of you listen to me when I was teaching you? What were you all doing???...There is the universe, created by God. Eve ate the apple, man got original sin..."(402)
In the final lines, Durang holds nothing back and just lets the audience have it:
(Sister shoots Gary dead. Then throws her arms in the air for joy.)Sister: (Triumphant.) "I have sent him to heaven!...I'm not really within the letter of the law shooting Gary like this. But really if he did make a good confession, I have sent him straight to heaven and eternal, blissful happiness. And I"m afraid otherwise he would have ended up in hell. I think Christ will allow me this little dispensation from the letter of the law, but I'll go to confession later today, just to be sure."
I think the entirety of the play actually rather mirrors an argument: it starts out in normal, soft voices, arguing a point and ends screaming and inches from your face. Perhaps it can be said that this play is, in fact, the illustration Durang's argument with the Church.
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