Anthony McCarten’s play about a pair of holy men at loggerheads, The Two Popes, lives up to its hallowed reputation, as it arrives on the Cambridge Arts Theatre stage, writes Miriam Balanescu
One would be at no risk of revealing spoilers in summing up the plot of Anthony McCarten’s 2019 play, The Two Popes; two men of the cloth, one in the Vatican, the other in a makeshift church in Argentina, are considering retirement. Both long to take life easier, the former wistfully dreaming of returning to Bavaria and tucking into endless bowls of knedle (recalled in a Proustian speech), the latter longing for respite from his duties, retreating to a quieter area of Buenos Aires where he would be well cared for by nuns.
These two men at crossroads in later life are unexpectedly intertwined. The first is Pope Benedict XVI, played with passion and simmering exuberance by Anton Lesser, and the second Cardinal Bergoglio, taken on by Nicholas Woodeson with charm and understated emotion. Only one can retire – and who gets to take off his zucchetto will come as no surprise.
The point of The Two Popes, however, isn’t really the plot. The appeal of McCarten’s brave handling of these real-life events lies in its potential for reflection. As the world hurtles towards a technological revolution, the role of a seemingly stagnant church – in the grip of scandal and helmed by “the pope of the status quo”, as nicknamed by Bergoglio – is called into question. This play also muses on the conundrum of pressures to devote one’s life to the Catholic mission and yet the reality of human aging meaning leaders may no longer be up to the task. Catholic politics and the divide between traditionalism and progressivism swirls headily in the mix, with Bergoglio’s backstory amid the Argentine Revolution making an intriguing addition. Whether Bergoglio can steer the Vatican into the future is this play’s central question.
This papal play is far from overburdened with its heavy intellectual questions. On the contrary, McCarten’s lines are radiant with wit and pithiness, while the two leads sparkle in their roles as holy men, humourists and – most importantly – humans. With an intricate production which lifts these two actors to the height of their powers, and a striking final montage, The Two Popes is glitteringly funny, soul-stirring and, at times, transcendentally good.
The Two Popes runs at Cambridge Arts Theatre until 1 October. Book tickets online here.
