By Jeni Gort and Julie Steele

A&E Editors

This week, the Calvin Theatre Company will open its spring show, a production of Arlene Hutton's play, ``As it is in Heaven.'' This show is unlike anything the company has produced recently, but is a stunning show, and one not to be missed.

Given that this spring's play has an all female cast, some may suspect it of containing a feminist agenda, but let us assure you: it contains nothing of the sort. ``Heaven'' is a beautiful and moving portrayal of a Shaker community turned upside down by a few young women who claim to see heavenly visions. The play deals with issues of faith, community, and worship in a unique way.

The CTC's portrayal of this small community of Shaker women is phenomenal. It is a play without a complex lighting scheme or soundtrack, without a painted set or elaborate props, and without any entrances or exits from the stage. In fact, the set consists of nothing but a hardwood floor with a blue and white wall behind it, and the lights are rarely anything but plain white or yellow, with the occasional blue thrown in. The props are little more than six benches, a few baskets, some knitting needles and a broom or two. Actresses who are not acting do not leave the stage, but only sit to the side of it. And the set is constructed so that audience members can sit on either side of the stage as well, adding to the feel of a genuine Shaker meeting house.

The costumes are true to the period as well. Typical women's garments of the Shaker community were all cut from the same pattern, and women who wished to express their individuality did so through their choice of color. So, too, in this play, all the costumes are the same: a plain, ankle-length A-line dress with a few pockets in front, five pleats in back, and scarf tied around the neck accompanied by a plain white bonnet. Each sister is dressed in her own color (which is fortunate for the audience, since it helps one to remember who is who), and the deaconesses wear additional plaid shawls.

This is quite a change of pace from the bright and decorative sets and costumes of recent CTC plays such as ``A Comedy of Errors'' or ``The Bourgeois Gentleman.'' But while these things set ``Heaven'' apart from most of the CTC's other productions, the lack of such elaborate things serves to symbolize the simplistic nature of the beliefs of the Shaker community. ```Tis a gift to be simple, `tis a gift to be free.''

The sisters and brethren (even though the brethren never make an appearance in the play) of this typical Shaker community in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky find comfort in their hard work and ``shake off'' their sins in public before their peers. They each have tasks and chores through which they provide for the entire community and celebrate their gift that God, the Mother and Father of all people, gave them.

Nevertheless, this tiny Shaker community is not the Heaven on Earth that it is supposed to be, at least in the deaconess' eyes. The Newcomers, people who have not yet come of age and signed the Covenant, are distracted from their work by ethereal visions of gold, light and music. The first and most ferverent of these girls to be visited by these angels is Sister Fanny. She is the first to go beyond the meadow, find this holy place among the trees and see what comes to be known as visitations from Mother Ann (the founder of the Shaker religion) and angels.

These visions soon spread to the other younger members of the Shaker community, regardless of their differing backgrounds, initiating a wide spread fear about the girls' radical beliefs and ways. Deciding that they only way to deal with this is by assembling a report of the visions and sending it to the Head Deacons on Mt. Lebanon, Sister Hannah is determined to put an end to what she sees as a ``false gift'' and a distraction from the chores the girls should be doing.

Not only are Sisters Fannie, Polly, and Izzy all questioned about their visions, but also the entire Shaker community must give a signed testimony of how they came to the village. The girls confess to seeing ``bright white light; like looking at the sun, but it doesn't hurt'' and hearing music that is not like anything they have heard before.

One can always tell superb acting when one comes to hate the antagonist so much that one wants to scream, retort, or cry at the injustice being done to the protagonist. The interrogation of these three girls creates such instincts within the audience: the scenes are harsh and frustrating, as the Established sisters don't want to believe that Mother Ann is speaking through these girls and using Newcomers as her instruments rather than those of the Covenant. Sister Hannah, in particular, struggles with the fact that she, and elderess, has not been chosen as a vessel.

Mother Ann sends encouraging messages and pictures to struggling sisters through Sister Polly's drawing gift and allows Sister Jane to cope with her difficult past of losing all five of her children before they reached age six. Some of the sisters see no harm in this, but the drawing is seen by Sister Hannah as a measure of pride and arrogance in assuming the knowledge of Mother Ann.

Yet these visions come not only to this particular Shaker community, but also to other communities who report visions of ``Saint Peter, Michael, and Christopher Columbus,'' disrupting the delicate balance between the ideals of industry, honesty, thrift, cleanliness, order, health, and functionalism for which the Shakers strive. It is this turmoil, however, that paves the way for a bottom-up revolution of their beliefs and assessment of visions.

The play contains a lot of detailed references to the Shaker way of life. In particular, references to Mother Ann might leave the audience wondering what their religion is all about. Well, wonder no more.

As the play's program states, the Shakers were originally founded in 1770s in Manchester, England. Due to religious persecution they encountered there, some of them left and went to America in 1774. Mother Ann Lee was one of them.

The Shakers believed that God was both mother and father to humanity, and had appeared to mankind in two different manifestations: Christ was the first, Mother Ann the second. The play is set in a period of Shaker history known as ``Mother Ann's Work,'' and so contains almost no reference to Christ, but its characters instead call on Mother Ann. This was a period of great revival and religious fervor.

The Shakers inhabited much of Pennsylvania and the South for quite a while throughout the 19th century, but died off due to a policy of chastity and a refusal to reproduce. They lasted as long as they did because they offered community, sanctuary and equality to anyone who wished to convert. The only requirement for joining was to sign their Covenant, which one could do at the age of twenty.

``Heaven'' was written by Arlene Hutton, a member of New Dramatists and resident playwright for The Journey Company. The show was written not even two years ago, and opened at the famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland last August. After its success at the Fringe, the play opened off-Broadway in New York just after 9-11. The CTC is the second theater company ever to perform this play.

How did this come to be? Well, Stephanie Sandberg, the play's director here at Calvin, worked with Hutton to research and write the play, and served as dramaturg to answer questions. She then brought the play to Calvin.

Cast members are interested to see how people will react to this play, given that it is so different from anything the CTC has done in recent years. While Hutton's work has been performed here in recent years for Theatre of Silence and Full Circle, ``Heaven'' is a distinctive work. You won't want to miss it, we promise.

Another unique aspect of this spring's play is the number of performances. There will be two extra matinees done for the Festival of Faith and Writing. Performances will be given April 11-13 and 17-20.

For Wednesday and Thursday performances, main seat tickets are $5 for students and $6 adults; for Friday and Saturday, main seats are $6 for students and $7 for adults. Stage seating is available for $3 all nights.