A lovely piece! Useful in a variety of English-speaking, Christian contexts. Would work well as an opening gambit for an adult evening during Advent.

I found the monologue to be thought-provoking and insightful. The tone was honest and challenging, and provided the audience with a great deal to turn around in reflection in their own faith discernment.

One of the Vella's principles I found represented was number 2, "Safety". A helpful characteristic of this type of drama is to allow the audience to find themselves in it and make it okay to access a variety of beliefs and emotions. I believe the audience would be inspired to relate their own questioning of faith to Joseph's, and receive acknowledgement and validation of the humanity of such questioning. This is contrast to a different kind of drama that might ellicit guilt or shame to the audience, which is not the case here.

I also find it to be in concert with Vella's principle number 7, "Learning with ideas, feelings, and actions". From my reading of it, I found myself emotionally moved towards a variety of feelings about Joseph. The intentional language at the beginning of anger and disdain towards Mary brought up negative feelings about Joseph, but could be understood upon reflection and gave me a real sense of relationship with Joseph. This is very important in drama, especially early on. As we moved through the drama, that initial relationship changed and brought up different feelings of sympathy, frustration, and almost relief toward the end. The path he walked is one I can relate to in challenges in the faith journey, which always brings feelings to the forefront that we must then learn from.