Prior to working in the Short North Stage's production of HAND TO GOD, Danny Turek had very little experience in the world of puppetry. After opening the show on Feb. 2, Turek and his alter ego "Tyrone" appear to be inseparable.
Turek heads up a talented five-person cast in the irreverent show that runs through Feb. 26 at the Garden Theatre (1187 North High Street in downtown Columbus).
"I mean I played with puppets when I was in elementary school but I had never done puppetry like this before," Turek said. "It was definitely difficult when there was lot of scenes where it was just me and him (Tyrone). I had to think about how Tyrone was acting as well as I was acting. I could always intermix with things that he could do, like moving his arms a certain way."
Even as Turek conducted a post-show interview, Tyrone cocks his head to the side and nods approvingly. Asked if he was controlling the devilish sock puppet subconsciously, Turek slipped seamlessly into Tyrone's Muppetish voice: "I am still right here, sitting on this interview.
For the two-act play, it's hard to tell where Turek's Jason ends and Tyrone begins as the satanic sock puppet terrorizes the congregation of the Pilgrim Lutheran Church. When Jason fears the puppet is "doing bad things to me" and shreds it, the puppet (like any good horror movie character) reemerges -uglier, stronger and more in control than it was before.
Technically, the church resides in Cypress, Texas but in reality, its home is the murky shadowlands between faith and doubt, between the pursuit of holiness and the lustful desires.
HAND TO GOD won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play in 2014 is listed as a comedy but audiences expecting an updated rehash of THE BOOK OF MORMON or AVENUE Q will walk away from the Edward Carignan-directed production with a lot more to think about. It is one of the rare shares that can make you laugh, cringe and think.
Six months after her husband's fatal heart attack, Margery (Barbara Weetman) finds herself heading up the church's puppetry ministry with her son Jason. The ministry attracts only two teenage puppeteers in Jessica (Kate Lingnofski) and Timothy (Chad Goodwin), who is more interested in wooing Margery than working with sock puppets. Margery finds herself as a vertex angle in a love triangle being pursued by both the under-aged Timothy and the undersexed Pastor Greg (Jonathan Putnam).
Weetman creates a paradox of a character, a lonely woman who wants to be good but eventually gives into her lustful depravity with hormone-driven Timothy and then is racked with guilt thereafter. Putnam's Pastor Greg is also the mixture of the sinner-saint. When he learns of Margery's dalliance with a teenager, he feels more spurned than horrified. "You gave me idle hands and I gave you puppetry."
Only Jessica seems unscathed the dark waves swirling around her church. Her conversation with Jason about going to Homecoming while Tyrone sexually ravishes her sock puppet is as comical as it is disturbing.
Carignan's subtle touches with the set and the music add to the show. In the show's opening, the audiences hear the soft refrains of the Carpenters' "Top of the World" as they see the Sky Blue cinder blocks of a church basement decorated with posters of Donald Trump and cute sayings like "Wash your hands and say your prayers because Jesus and germs are everywhere." As the show progresses, the music between set changes and the scenery becomes darker and darker until AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" is blaring, Elmo is affixed on a cross and black lights reveal the words "Lucifer Lives" painted across the walls.
The show is definitely not for the easily offended, especially when Margery rips out the parts of the Bible she doesn't like or when Tyrone vandalizes several of the posters but stands in reverence and awe before the one of the Donald.
The show ends the same way it started with a poignant monologue by Tyrone. "The thing about a savior is you never know where to look," Tyrone said. "Might just be the place you saw the devil before." The stage goes dark except for an eerie light around the Trump poster.
HAND TO GOD plays 8 p.m. Feb. 2-4, Feb. 9-11, Feb. 16-18, and Feb. 23-25 with 3 p.m. matinees on Feb. 5, 12, 19 and 26 at the Garden Theatre (1187 N. High Street in downtown Columbus). Contact 614-725-4042 for details
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