That the church, or specifically the lamp that shines some holy light on their situations, should serve that role might come as a surprise to those who know that most of the best contemporary Irish playwrights are not particularly fond of what the church has wrought in Ireland.
Nor is Murphy, who turns the confessional on its head in ''The Sanctuary Lamp," making it a place of comfort and nurture rather than of punishment and guilt. But there is still hope in Murphy's world for what the church at its best represents -- not only a sanctuary from the sadness of the world, but a place to gather the hope and strength needed to leave the church and get back into the life of the world with a lighter soul.
Carmel O'Reilly, the head of Sugan and the director of this production, knows all about sacred spaces, as she and set designer J. Michael Griggs make brilliant use of the new Roberts Studio Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. The sense of spaciousness and the brown earth tones, spotted with gold, cast a sense of warmth that the most lapsed of Catholics could respond to. John R. Malinowki's lighting is a work of art in itself.
But it isn't just the look of the piece. O'Reilly writes in the program notes that Murphy is Ireland's greatest living playwright -- high praise coming from the head of an Irish company that has produced Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh, and Conor McPherson to great acclaim. She goes on to say that he is ''remarkably unknown on this side of the Atlantic."
I haven't seen or read enough of Murphy's work to know whether I agree with O'Reilly about his place at the top of the impressive list of Irish writers, but after seeing this and a couple of other Sugan productions of his plays, it isn't surprising that he isn't as well known as the others.
There isn't the scabrous sense of humor of McDonough, the rivetingly rhythmic storytelling of McPherson, or the easy transcendence, sometimes too easy transcendence, of Friel.
