That's a heck of a high style statement. What I mean, to speak more colloquially (a high style adjective for lower/middle style writing language), is that Durang's funny play is funny because it's also kind of sad, and also very true. Durang humorously exploits contradictions of biblical proportion, but ultimately investigates the grotesques of contradictions within Sister Mary Ignatius herself.
Though at first a cliche caricature of Catholic school repression, whose attributes consists of firm convictions and a pocket of cookies, a darker side of Sister Mary Ignatius's reveals itself as the character develops. These are the qualities that torture her students, the strict prejudices that she expresses through a dogmatic doctrine: Her dehumanizing treatment of even her favorite student Thomas (who she quizes for treats), her consistent mention of Sodom and Gomorrah to characterize homosexuality, and the strictly sober way in which she accounts for the crucifixion of christ as "nice of him" without any sense of irony. Each of these humorous aspects of the Durang's play contains a dark polarity, and this dichotomy characterizes the inner conflicts of Sister Mary Ignatius herself.
I have a difficult time writing critically about a dramatists' prose. Plays, consisting mostly of dialogue, give very little insight into the voice of the author himself. However, Durang's mastery of irony reveals his objective style, and he is always conscious of the character.
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