In Solo Show “Unreconciled,” Jay Sefton Confronts the Scars of Clergy Abuse

The centuries-old ritual of the Passion Play — the theatrical depiction of the last days and resurrection of Jesus — has been a bonding force in communities since medieval days. In actor-playwright Jay Sefton’s one-man, fact-inspired drama Unreconciled, co-written with Mark Basquill, the ancient form becomes the flashpoint for a modern morality tale of a survivor and community whose lives are shaken by sexual abuse and corrupt institutional coverup.

“I was cast to play Jesus in an Eighth Grade play that was written by and directed by a parish priest who was later defrocked in large part for his abuse of the kids playing Jesus in his plays,” Sefton told me. “The investigation of that priest can be found in the 400-plus page Grand Jury report from 2005.  The bones of the show come from a 2019 Op-Ed I wrote for a Harrisburg newspaper, but I decided to write Unreconciled following the colossal failure of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass statute of limitations reform in 2021. I was filled with so much rage. It had been 20 years of ignoring survivors and so I thought I would try and write a play about it.”

Sefton grew up in Havertown, PA, and attended parochial school where Father Thomas Smith was an assistant pastor and director of the Easter-season Passion story. In Unreconciled, Sefton plays more than a dozen characters — including his abuser, who had also preyed on other boys over the years, according to investigations by law enforcement and the Catholic Church. Even after allegations, Smith received promotions within the Philadelphia diocese — not uncommon in the sex abuse pandemic in the Catholic church.

“It’s really a story about how this event of abuse affects an entire community, so I try to play the people in that community,” Sefton explained, adding that his late father Joe Sefton emerges in the play.

“My dad sort of organically grew into a main character,” Sefton said. “He had a very definite take on all of it when the story emerged about Father Smith, and I try to capture that take based on conversations we had, letters he wrote, and some imagined monologues based on what I knew about him coupled with [co-writer] Mark’s ideas of what it is to be a father. I strangely feel closer to him from this play than I did at times when he was alive.”

Sefton said he didn’t consider himself a particularly devout Catholic kid, but, like many children, he was brought up to trust adults in leadership positions and not question their authority.

“I knew I didn’t like what was going on and felt terrible shame, embarrassment, and anger about it all,” Sefton said. “I did not have the language of trauma in 1985 or the ability to think outside of the context I had been living in for the first 13 years of my life. It was not until Father Smith was defrocked and I was in my thirties, struggling with alcoholism and life, did I have the ability to start to understand all of what happened in my early teens.”

Bookings of Unreconciled have surfaced in the Northeast since 2023. (Here’s a rave from one of my favorite regional critics, Wendy Arons, who saw the play in Pittsburgh.)

It officially premiered with Chester Theatre Company in Chester, MA,  in July 2024, when it snagged awards for Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding World Premiere of a New Play, from the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (the awards are known as The Berkies).

This fall, Unreconciled runs through Oct. 12 at Cotuit Center for the Arts in Cotuit, MA, followed by engagements in Ireland — October 17-19 at Lyric Theatre Belfast and Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at The Mick Lally Theatre at the Druid in Galway. Future bookings are planned for Kansas City, Harrisburg and Havertown. Performances include talkbacks with professionals in the survivor community.

Presenters interested in booking or partnering on Unreconciled can contact Sefton directly.

I first knew Jay Sefton’s work as a talented actor when he appeared as the legionnaire Danny (a wonderful performance) in What the Constitution Means to Me in Stockbridge, MA, in a 2023 co-pro by WAM Theatre and Berkshire Theatre Group. I only recently realized that he was married to gifted actress-writer Melenie Freedom Flynn, who was so good in my play Alabama Story at the Majestic Theatre in West Springfield, MA back in 2018. They live and work in Easthampton, MA.

Jay answered a handful of my questions about Unreconciled.

Unreconciled is small, intimate and built to travel, right? Street clothes and a chair?

Jay Sefton: We have a very nimble and nomadic show that relies mostly on the power of storytelling and acting with some sound and projections to assist in the theatrical experience. So, yes, it is barebones with just a chair and a table…and in a pinch we don’t need the table. We can usually get teched up in less than a day.

Where were you as a theater artist at the time of the creation of the play?

Jay Sefton: At the time I started writing I was mostly focused on my private practice as a mental health counselor in a general private practice. It was during the pandemic, so not much theater was happening. By the time Unreconciled was first staged in the summer of 2023, I started working as an actor again at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and at The Majestic Theater in West Springfield. (Check out Jay’s past credits as an actor here.)

How does being a therapist dovetail with or inform the play? What prompted you to become a therapist?

Jay Sefton: I find that trauma plays out across my practice and most likely the general population and is often part of what it is to be a human. There are many fantastic complements and connections between therapy and theater — deep listening, placing the focus on the other person, improvisation and allowing the moment to lead us rather than forcing an outcome, not being afraid of a silence or feeling the need to fill it. There are just so many. I moved toward therapy after writing my first solo show in 2008 about the narratives that run our lives. I became very interested in the post-show conversations, and that was my first inclination that I might like this work.

Was Unreconciled always a one-man show, or did you first conceive it differently? Share a little about your contact with your co-writer Mark Basquill and what he brought to the table?

Jay Sefton: I always thought of it as a solo show. I like the format for a story like this and always envisioned playing these characters. Mark’s contribution is so pivotal. We had first come in contact after that Op-Ed I wrote, He is a psychologist [and] survivor from Philadelphia, who has written some plays on the topic as well. About six months into the writing I reached out to him to see if he would like to collaborate. He agreed and it has been a magical partnership since. He is a talented writer and a very kind person who brought perspectives to some of the characters that I would not have been able to provide.

I’m curious about your research journey as you were putting the play together: What was your knowledge of the Catholic Church’s Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP), which was established in 2018 to “promote healing by providing compensation to victims/survivors of abuse by priests or deacons”? How aware were you of the Philadelphia Grand Jury report investigating sexual abuse by clergy? 

Jay Sefton: In 2007 I filed a report with the D.A. in Delaware County [suburban Philly] about what happened to me in my teens. I called the victims assistance coordinator at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and they started to pay for my therapy which allowed me to really begin looking at all of this and healing. In 2018 I received a packet from the IRRP, and went through their program. So the research was really more lived experience of the program and much of that is covered in the play. I became aware of the Grand Jury report in 2007 after the published article about Father Smith being defrocked.

You were not the only survivor of Thomas Smith, as mentioned in the Grand Jury report. Was his behavior an open secret in your own community?

Jay Sefton: I did not testify in the 2005 Grand Jury report. I am forever grateful to the person who did that. Yes, it was an open secret, particularly amongst the kids in the town. I think we understood better than the adults of what was going on. It is a big deal to have that report and be able to reference it when the voices of doubt and shame rear up, and they do.

What sort of anger do you feel toward Father Smith?

Jay Sefton: I don’t have a lot of anger, and definitely not hatred toward Father Smith. I mostly feel sorry for him. My rage and anger is mostly reserved for the self-protecting mechanisms of the Catholic Church and certain politicians who do their bidding by killing legislation and teaming up to avoid accountability, deny justice, and refuse to protect the people they claim to care about.

How did the title of the play come about? Were there other titles?

Jay Sefton: The title of Unreconciled was the first thing that came to me. Before I ever started writing anything I had real video footage from the Passion Play from 1985, the Op-Eds and essays I wrote, a couple of letters from my dad, and the title. It never changed throughout the process. It is a riff on the [Archdiocese’s] “reconciliation” program and feeling like that was a disingenuous use of the word.

In the course of performing this play, have you spoken to survivors of Smith or of other priests?

Jay Sefton: The journey of performing and traveling the show has put me in touch with many other survivors and some of them have also been preyed upon by Smith. I don’t cover it in the show, but it has become one of the main reasons for continuing to do the show. My wife and I have actually started a nonprofit around this need for us to talk about this, find each other, and have stories heard and experiences validated. The Unreconciled Project just recently received our 501c3 status in August.

Have childhood friends reached out to you or seen the play? Has it been performed in your hometown?

Jay Sefton: It has been one of the great joys of this experience to reconnect with friends from childhood. They have been so supportive and a bunch of people came to New York to see the show in September 2024 at the New York Irish Center and then an even bigger crew came in April to the University of Pennsylvania to see it in a benefit performance for CHILD USA. We will be bringing the show for a week to Havertown in the Irish pub I hung out a lot in during my late teens and twenties. I am looking forward to those shows in April of 2026.

Do you see yourself as an activist?

Jay Sefton: I never really considered myself an activist, but as this play moves into the world, I suppose I am getting a little more comfortable with the idea. We are working on a performance in Harrisburg in April 2026 surrounding a vote on new legislation that has been introduced by State Representative Nate Davidson. If we get the theater, the play will be a part of the push to get people to vote for the bill [to extend statute of limitations for sex crime reporting]. So in that case I guess it has become an activist effort to perform Unreconciled.

Can you share specifically how this play has been healing for you, or did you feel healed before the start of this?

Jay Sefton: I felt like I was screaming into a void to try and get a response from a politician or the church about what they were doing to people by lobbying to block legislation and denying justice for 20 years. It was really frustrating and made me feel helpless. I don’t feel that way anymore. This play has given me a voice in the fight. I have no idea if the legislation will ever change in Pennsylvania, but I don’t feel helpless, unseen, or not heard anymore. That is huge and I hope when other survivors see the show they can locate their own stories in it and also feel seen.

Please share a little more about your not-for-profit organization The Unreconciled Project.

Jay Sefton: In conjunction with the play Unreconciled, the Project facilitates storytelling workshops, peer support groups, and public forums with leading experts on the issues of childhood sexual abuse. We use the play as a jumping-off point to create safe, intentional spaces where survivors and communities can engage in the vulnerable but vital conversations around this topic. The Unreconciled Project allows us to fundraise in order to produce and co-produce the show at different venues around the country and the world to bring the show and our surrounding programs into communities that are affected by the subject, which as the numbers show, are all communities.

What are your hopes for the future of Unreconciled? Publication? Licensing? TV? Although it’s deeply personal, I can see other actors performing this. Can you?

Jay Sefton: If someone else cared enough to want to perform the play, I would be all for it and get a ticket on opening night. That is such a cool idea. It would mean that it spoke to another actor enough to memorize it and play these characters. How amazing and surreal would that be? I hope I get to continue to perform the show. I hope the legislation changes in Pennsylvania and in other states. I hope our nonprofit can support this whole effort. I am on board for following the project to wherever it might lead. If we are fortunate enough to have those things happen that you mention, I would be happy to do all of them. We’ll see what happens.

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For his work on Unreconciled, Sefton was honored by SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) for his work with survivors in Pennsylvania, and by CHILD USA  with the Sean P. McIlmail Hero Award in 2025.