Author Surprised by ‘Intolerance’ Displayed by Some to ‘Sister Mary’

Christopher Durang, the author of “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You,” could not be reached Wednesday for comment on the latest controversy over his 1979 play. In an August interview, however, he told The Times that he was initially surprised that people found the play anti-religious.

“I was. I think I was a little naive to be surprised. I just thought ‘Sister Mary’ was presenting my viewpoints. The times it had been done initially, audiences on the whole found it funny. I didn’t expect people to be so upset, and I didn’t expect anybody would get involved and say you shouldn’t put it on. I honestly felt if you don’t agree with someone, you say, ‘I don’t agree with that,’ but it’s rare someone would try to stop it.

“I think that almost in a funny way, the controversy with ‘Sister Mary’ was in the forefront of what we are seeing now with the National Endowment of the Arts. It feels to me like the liberals were very, very vocal in the ‘60s. I was in college in the ‘60s and protested the Vietnam War among other things.

“The conservatives found that vocalness annoying but learned from it. The conservatives are very, very vocal now. The conservatives have drummed up hysteria over the Robert Mapplethorpe photographs. I haven’t seen them, but the bulk of what the NEA does is very middle of the road and acceptable to people. Almost every regional theater gets funding from the NEA. The last 11 Pulitzer Prize winners have come from regional theater. There is a lack of tolerance now for differences of opinion. The whole thing is very upsetting.”