In Morag Shepherd’s superb two-hander The Big Quiet, two Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sister missionaries could not be more different. But, by the end of the play, they are closer to each other than either could ever have imagined. In their respective ways, they realize that women in the Mormon community literally will never be enough in a place where being dependent and servile is expected of them.
With absorbing opening night performances that crackled with perfect chamber theater chemistry, The Big Quiet extends an outstanding string of premieres for the PYGmalion Theatre Company, which has really found its groove over the last two seasons. Directed by Tamara Howell, the play is set 20 years ago (2005) in San Diego and takes place entirely in the apartment of Sister García (Juls Marino) and Sister Roberts (Lily Hilden).
It was about as near-perfect as an opener could be. Marino and Hilden knock homeruns out of the park, in bringing crystal believability to their characters, notable considering neither was ever a Mormon missionary. Nevertheless, their instincts are magnificent in responding to the material and direction of Shepherd and Howell, both of whom served as church missionaries.
As noted in the preview published recently at The Utah Review, Shepherd shapes a fascinating counterpoint. Roberts, who has yet to successfully bring a convert to baptism, admires García, who already has completed five cases with investigators (that is, non-LDS individuals who are meeting with missionaries). Roberts is quintessentially posited as a rules-abiding missionary while García has loosened her boundaries and is comfortable with bending their expected obligations in doctrine and decorum.
There is a lot of humor in the play, especially with the Garcia character, but Marino melds it beautifully in setting up the scaffold for an epiphany that is built up with finely executed subtleties. Ready to ditch the obligatory routines of a sister missionary, García talks about cheese, burritos and food incessantly. García enjoys shocking and teasing her straight-laced companion. Hilden is equally brilliant as Roberts, who doesn’t think about food but instead talks endlessly about fasting, LDS doctrine and hitting the neighborhood in the hope of finally notching a conversion.
Both women have insatiable appetites, for very different reasons. Marino and Hilden are at their finest in elucidating the remarkable manner in which Shepherd has written dialogue that converges upon discovering that what they have believed in is nothing more than a mirage.
There is a wonderful bit of foreshadowing early in the play. Roberts laments her lack of success in conversions and is trying to figure out what she might be doing wrong. García says, “That’s not it, because I’m awful, and I’ve already had five baptisms.”
For Garcia, six months as a missionary seems like a lifetime. When she says, “I can’t believe I sincerely thought I was going to change people’s lives. Six months ago, me was a real delulu,” Roberts shoots back, “You do change people’s lives. You’re better than all the elders. You’re amazing.”
But García says that her heart has changed, which startles Roberts who worries constantly about being weak and lacking in qualities. Itching to go tracting, Roberts tries to persuade García to join her in fasting. García says, “We both know why you like to fast, Kenzie. It’s because you have a little eighteen-year-old eating prob sitch.”
Roberts is brought to tears when García says, “You’re oppressed, so you starve. It’s classic.” Realizing that she may have gone too far and trying to quickly ease Roberts’ anxieties about performative perfectionism, García shares something that no else knows.
Of the trilogy of Mormon-themed plays that Shepherd has written, The Biq Quiet stands out in an already distinguished set of works. In 2017, Shepherd won the Association of Mormon Letters’ award for best drama of 2016, for Burn. A classic example of how Shepherd handles the objective of minimalism in theater, Burn’s theatrical contours were chiseled in part by the playwright’s struggles with her Mormon faith and the realization that she did not have to try to fit into a religion she didn’t fit into, as she discovered.
Certainly worthy of being considered for similar honors, The Big Quiet is more intimate but also more daring in its critique. The play’s humor is crafted, with a lovely nostalgic sense. As Shepherd explained in an interview, she was more like Roberts than García during her mission. But, years after leaving the LDS faith, Shepherd astutely telegraphs memories of mixed feelings, which include positive memories of her missionary companions. In The Big Quiet, the assertive and freewheeling García represents the biggest thing that Shepherd wanted to change about the experience of her younger self during her mission.
Audiences should be alert to the minor bits that elevate The Big Quiet. One comes from a 2004 story in Salt Lake City that gained national attention, involving a typical young Mormon couple. Mark Hacking had reported that his wife, Lori, a teacher, was missing but the search ended in shock when he confessed to murdering his wife. As they prepared to move across the country, she had learned that he had elaborately concocted a lie about studying to become a doctor.
Throughout the play, Roberts refers to the male elders and church authorities, without immediately realizing how much the deck is stacked against women in the church. The Hacking murder shocked Mormons and non-Mormons but it also revealed how ill-prepared LDS bishops are should a woman church member come to report domestic violence, sexual abuse or situations such as those when an eventual murder victim discovered that her husband’s life was nothing but a pyramid of lies.
Women are not in the same LDS sphere as men. In a 2023 On Point radio interview, Meg Conley, editor of the Homeculture newsletter who was an LDS church member for many years before deciding to stop attending services in 2020, said, “The husband has the power of God, and the wife doesn’t … That’s a fundamental difference that plays into the way that many men treat women within the LDS church.”
The Big Quiet is about an institution that thrives on secrecy. In that same On Point radio show in 2023, which highlighted the murder-suicide case where every member of an Enoch, Utah family died, Jana Riess, a well-known religion scholar, writer and columnist, explained, “It’s a complex picture because there are, you know, families made up of, well, partnered people, obviously, in that community.” She added, “There are women who are outspoken and men who appreciate outspoken women, too. I think that it would be a mistake to not understand that complexity. But I think that sometimes we are tempted to find a very neat narrative. Because ultimately that makes it less scary for the people not in that community, because we’re able to say, ‘Well, it happened there, but it won’t happen here.’ But as … said at the beginning of the show, this is happening everywhere.”
Eventually, Roberts understands what García already knows, about an illusion designed to keep them obsessed and focused on overcoming their perceived shortcomings. Is the pressure of a mission worth the price of sacrificing one’s individuality, especially in a community where women will never have the authority but will always be called to serve?
This production should not be missed. Performances continue through March 8. For tickets and more information, see the PYGmalion Theatre Company website.