REVIEW: A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD Presents A Thought Provoking Contemplation Through An Unlikely Pairing.

Saturday 13th April 2024, 7:30pm, Reginald Theatre Seymour Centre

Craig Baldwin (Director) delivers a compact but captivating expression of Samuel D. Hunter’s (Playwright) A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.  The 2022 New York Drama Critics Circle Award Winner for Best Play, this two-hander is a simple but thought-provoking piece that never directly discusses the title.

Following on from Hunter’s stories set in his home state of Idaho, the premise of A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD is that the straight, white, soon to be divorced, not very bright father Ryan (Anthony Gooley), wants to get his life on track and he thinks buying back the land his ancestors once homestead once stood is the solution.  Overhearing that Keith (Elijah Williams), a father at the same daycare, is in finance he sets up a meeting, thinking their connection will sway the loan application but he doesn’t understand the difference between a lender and a broker let alone the other paperwork that Keith presents him with.  Through the course of their meetings the two very different but oddly similar men strike up a friendship.  Keith is sophisticated, well educated, financially responsible, gay and Black but he also has the care of a child, a foster daughter.  Both love their daughters who are a month apart in age, both are at risk of loosing them, though Keith has less influence on whether biological relatives of the child may stake their claim or not, while Ryan’s actions can influence his access to his child in the divorce settlement.  As Hunter has Ryan realize relatively early on, the two share “a specific kind of sadness” but they persist, shifting their relationship from the professional to a social level.

The work is a series of conversations, across limited locations so set and lighting designer Veronique Benett has opted to draw particular attention to the opening scene of Keith’s office cubical, complete with suspended fluorescent light.  Later a simple shift of the men’s chairs and a removal of the overhead light relies on the dialogue and physicality to imply that the pair have shifted to a more relaxed setting of Keith’s home, chatting while listening out of the baby monitor. With several of the scenes following on in the same setting, staticky electric tones (Sound Composition and Design: Jeremy Waters) and flickering lights allow time to shift though it’s not till the infants age is mentioned again that it becomes clear how long the friendship has gone on for.  The simplicity continues to the Costuming, also by Jeremy Waters, where Ryan wears blue collar factory worker’s durable clothing while Keith is more stylish and suitable for an office while reflecting the brokerage's rural town location. 

Gooley and Williams both deliver strong performances and work well together.  They both ensure there is honesty and truth behind their expression.  They connect to the text and the emotion to ensure the interactions and reactions are presented with the right balance ensuring the work never feels forced, providing lighter moments that enable the audience to enjoy the humor of the work while revelations and reactions land with the requisite weight to garner recognition and response.  They both ensure that the audience can connect and sympathize with them so that you want them to have their happy endings, hoping that the unspoken God will do right by the men.

While the title implies that Hunter wants the audience to consider whether God exists, spirituality is never mentioned beyond Ryan having faith that things will turn out well.  What is more powerful as a message is the need for men to support each other, to talk and support each other beyond the historic trend of being told to ‘man up’, ‘deal with it’ or that it isn’t masculine to talk about feelings, with men historically favoring banal trivialities like sport over feelings when they do talk.  While Keith has his father’s support in fostering and adopting its unclear how much emotional support he has and Ryan appears to have no one else to turn to following his marriage breakdown.  The support the pair provide each other is important as they open up and share their struggles and fears leading to a possibility that even though one could argue that ‘God’ has handed these two a bad deal, they did ensure that they met and had each other to help them through.

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD is an expression of humanity and the human experience, allowing the audience to make their own connections to any form of faith or belief system.  The simple concept of two men coming together regularly and talking enables many themes to be explored, from mental health, corporate greed, government bureaucracy, prejudice, acceptance and forgiveness, plus more.  Well worth seeing these two talented performers share the stage and tell this captivating and moving story.

https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/a-case-for-the-existence-of-god/

Photos: Philip Erbacher

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