12/16/2015Theater: Oh Hell! 'The Christians' Tackles Faith | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=966c33c5-b463-4339-986e-7b40da2166ac&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Theater: Oh Hell! 'The Christians' Tackles FaithTheater: Oh Hell! 'The Christians' Tackles FaithTHE CHRISTIANS *** out of **** PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONSA big city play about mega-churches that isn't cynical or filled with hypocritical con men or womanizers or childmolesters or womanizing child molesters who pick your pocket at the same time? It's a miracle!Of course theater has a long history of engaging with faith. (The David Ives play New Jerusalem is a particularlybrilliant example from recent years.) And Lucas Hnath is an exciting talent.</p><p> His piece circling Walt Disney wasfascinating and Isaac's Eye turned scientific debates into a riveting night out worthy of Michael Frayn'sCopenhagen.So it's no surprise that The Christians is relatively nuanced, more interested in matters of faith and personaldemons than in portraying cardboard heroes and villains.</p><p> I wish it were better, but a good production and anexcellent cast certainly make it worth the pilgrimage to Playwrights Horizon.The audience is sitting in the pews when a choir of 21 comes on stage and sings modestly swinging gospeltunes of the mega-church variety.</p><p> Those looking for clues to the strain of Christianity on display at this house ofGod we're attending will (I think) be left clueless. (I know evangelicals who don't listen to certain Christian bandswhich to me seem interchangeable with other Christian bands because of the strand of fundamentalismespoused by said band via key words and phrases.)Technically, the production helmed by Les Waters is spot on.</p><p> The potted plants and vaguely anonymousatmosphere, the hum of phones ringing and business being conducted even while the pastor is preaching(mega-churches are BIG and something is always going on somewhere else, even during service) -- it all feelsright. (Credit to the behind the scenes talent, especially the sound design of Jake Rodriguez.)Pastor Paul (Andrew Garman) finally begins to speak and between the singing and his sermon, that's thesubstantial and riveting first 20 minutes or so of this tight, 95 minute work.</p><p> While Paul talks, he's joined onstageby his wife Elizabeth (Linda Powell), associate pastor Joshua (Larry Powell), and church elder Jay (Philip Kerr).For much of the show, they are on stage with no dialogue to speak of and as a group they do marvelous workstaying in character, offering subtle hints to their state of mind without ever breaking character -- they are, afterall, facing the congregation and a certain propriety is called for.That isn't easy because Pastor Paul's sermon is a whopper.</p><p> Today is the day their little church that could isfinally debt free.</p><p> And today is the day Paul pronounces a seismic change in his personal theology, one he hopesand believes the congregation will embrace.Paul tells a story he heard about a young man in an African country.</p><p> A car bomb goes off and while most flee,this young man runs toward the disaster, rushes into a burning grocery story and brings his little sister out.</p><p> He'sshielding her from the flames, literally burning alive but saving her life in the process.</p><p> The young man collapseson the ground in terrible agony and dies.</p><p> The person who related this story to Paul said what a shame this herowasn't born again, what a pity he hadn't been saved and now must be suffering the pangs of hell.Paul cried that night, suffering a crisis of faith and wrestling with his conscience, he tells us.</p><p> Did he truly believe12/16/2015Theater: Oh Hell! 'The Christians' Tackles Faith | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=966c33c5-b463-4339-986e-7b40da2166ac&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4that young man was going to suffer eternal torment, a young man who was not born again or even Christian butby all accounts a decent and good person? No.</p><p> No he did not.</p><p> Paul does not believe in hell anymore, not theway he has always preached before.</p><p> He doesn't believe his way is the only way to eternal salvation.</p><p> Now hewants to share a message of love and mercy, not condemnation and pain and punishment.</p><p> That is the Jesus hebelieves in.</p><p> Will they believe in this Jesus too?Wait.</p><p> He doesn't believe in hell anymore? You don't have to be saved to be saved? Among fundamentalistChristians, a sex scandal or financial shenanigans pale in comparison to such a radical change in theology.Paul's faith has been tested and now he's testing everyone else.To the credit of Hnath, this is the heart of the play: a debate about ideas.</p><p> In Isaac's Eye, scientific debatesinvariably revealed characters and furthered our understanding of the people.</p><p> Here, however, the play'sweakness is that it doesn't, not really.</p><p> Paul is immediately challenged by Associate Pastor Joshua, who isinvited by Paul to share his concerns.</p><p> Joshua says quite reasonably that the Bible says there's a hell.</p><p> Paul says"Where?" Joshua cites certain passages like a reference to Gehenna, which Paul immediately dismisses ashistorically referring to a garbage dump outside ancient Jerusalem, not necessarily or even likely a place ofeternal damnation than an idea of a place you dump the unwanted, much like New Yorkers think of the Bronx.Joshua then says what about....</p><p> And here's where the play first stumbled for me.</p><p> Joshua pauses and has to flipthrough the Bible he has to find a particular passage.</p><p> Now Joshua is a magnetic, hugely important figure in thismega-church.</p><p> He's the second in command.</p><p> And frankly, in their world, you'd be hard pressed to find someonein a similar position who COULDN'T cite chapter and verse for just about any passage in the Bible.</p><p> It's theirbread and butter.</p><p> But Joshua stumbles around and finally reads another passage and Paul shoots that onedown with a combination of history and linguistic challenges about what this or that word actually means. (Thegospels for example were often originally passed down orally in Aramaic and then written down in Greek andthen translated again and again into English over the centuries, so as you can imagine nuances are lost andmeanings shift.)It's a masterful moment of spiritual domination, but it's also a wildly uneven battle.</p><p> Though such debates arecommonplace, Joshua is practically helpless in front of Paul's knowledge.</p><p> And that makes this key early strugglefar less satisfying than it might have been.</p><p> Quite simply, Joshua is not a worthy foil for the doubts many aresurely feeling.Hnath doesn't stop there.</p><p> Joshua leaves the church and while only a handful follow, those numbers grow in theweeks to come.</p><p> Then Paul is confronted by choir member Jenny, though "confront" is not the right word for thedeliciously timid, submissive but firm questioning of Jenny. (Emily Donahoe is very good in this tricky part).Here the dramatic problem of the debate between Paul and Joshua is flipped.</p><p> Jenny raises one tricky questionand one easy one.</p><p> Why did Paul wait until after the church's debt had been paid off to reveal his new thinking?That seems suspicious.</p><p> And if there's no hell, does that mean Hitler is in heaven? Suddenly, the confidentpastor -- previously on fire with the Spirit and ready with a thoughtful, informed answer to every question -- ishelpless to respond.Yet bringing up Hitler or a serial killer or some other notoriously evil person is theology 101, the sort of thingPaul would have heard a thousand times before.</p><p> This engaging public speaker should have also been able todeal with the personal question of timing more adroitly as well, at least eventually in their talk.</p><p> First in one scenehe's completely prepared to defend his beliefs against the queries of the man presumably the most capable toquestioning them.</p><p> In the next, he's helpless in front of the most banal questioning.Paul's wife weighs in later and this battle is a doozy.</p><p> Actress Linda Powell has been especially good at revealingher thoughts onstage without overplaying her hand.</p><p> When she finally gets to speak, it's fiery and fierce: whydidn't he open up to her about his doubts, why did she hear about them for the first time in front of everyone12/16/2015Theater: Oh Hell! 'The Christians' Tackles Faith | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=966c33c5-b463-4339-986e-7b40da2166ac&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/4else, what if God wants her to fight him and challenge him and convince him he's on the wrong path?Certainly, The Christians is strongest when the ideas that animate it are revealing of the characters.</p><p> That's whythis scene between Paul and his wife is so charged; it feels rooted in who these two people are and who they'rebecoming.</p><p> And that's why the final scene between Paul and Joshua works better: their back and forth is morepersonal and specific and Joshua's heart-to-heart is richer and more enlivening than anything that came before.(Both Garman and Powell are excellent throughout.)The Christians will enjoy a long life in regional theater.</p><p> And I can't wait to see Hnath's next play.</p><p> If he's lucky, ittoo will be brought to life by an excellent cast.</p><p> He clearly did his homework.</p><p> As Biblical scholar Karen Armstrongsays, Paul is the apostle "we love to hate," in other words a complex and confusing one who infuriates as muchas he enlightens.</p><p> And Joshua? He's revered by Jews and Muslims alike.</p><p> Mormons named the favorite greeneryof U2 after him (the Joshua Tree) because it seemed to mimic this humble man praying to heaven.</p><p> And whenMoses died, it was not one of his sons who led his people forward.</p><p> It was Joshua.</p><p> Unlike Moses, Paul may nothave died.</p><p> But for the fundamentalist Christians in his church, abandoning a bedrock conviction of their faith wasfar more tragic.THEATER OF 2015Honeymoon In Vegas ** The Woodsman *** Constellations ** 1/2 Taylor Mac's A 24 Decade History Of Popular Music 1930s-1950s ** 1/2 Let The Right One In ** Da no rating A Month In The Country ** 1/2 Parade in Concert at Lincoln Center ** 1/2 Hamilton at the Public *** The World Of Extreme Happiness ** 1/2 Broadway By The Year 1915-1940 ** Verite * 1/2 Fabulous! * The Mystery Of Love & Sex ** An Octoroon at Polonsky Shakespeare Center *** 1/2 Fish In The Dark * The Audience *** Josephine And I *** Posterity * 1/2 The Hunchback Of Notre Dame ** Lonesome Traveler ** On The Twentieth Century *** Radio City Music Hall's New York Spring Spectacular ** 1/2 The Heidi Chronicles * The Tallest Tree In The Forest * 1/2 Broadway By The Year: 1941-1965 *** Twelfth Night by Bedlam *** What You Will by Bedlam *** 1/2 Wolf Hall Parts I and II ** 1/2 Skylight *** Nellie McKay at 54 Below ***
