A gripping ‘Last Confession’ delves into the mysteries of a pope’s death

CANADA
Buffalo News

By Melinda Miller | News Staff Reporter
on May 6, 2014

TORONTO – Angels and demons of Vatican politics collide in the powerfully executed mystery that is “The Last Confession.” Told through the eyes of Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, who almost became pope himself, it is the story of the death of Pope John Paul I – sudden, unexplained and never truly investigated.

This spring, when the world has the rare confluence of two living popes and two popes newly sainted, the show now playing at the Royal Alexandra Theatre gains an added layer of relevancy, and even intrigue.

As we watch and start to wonder if John Paul experienced a natural death, or something more sinister, the mind also considers more recent Vatican changes. Why did Benedict really resign, and will a church hierarchy that rejected the first John Paul embrace a similarly humble Francis I?

What makes the play so gripping is that most of the world never really knows what goes on in the rooms around the celestial marbles of St. Peter’s Square. Playwright Roger Crane wants us to find out.

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