[yasr_overall_rating]
There is theatre that makes you feel good. Pretty much anything by Rogers & Hammerstein. There is theatre that tells a great story. Pretty much anything by Tennessee Williams. Then there is theatre like I saw last night. “The Christians” is theatre that makes you think, contemplate, and even examine your own life for what it is.
On the very surface, it is a story about a radical new idea and what happens when you publish that idea. The story is about what happens when a very public figure makes a major decision that not everyone agrees with. Pastor Paul’s church wasn’t always big. In twenty short years, it had grown from a small, mom-and-pop operation, into a full-blown mega-church with thousands of members, a coffee shop, and a parking lot so big you could get lost in it. But today, Pastor Paul has a new message for his devoted flock – one that will turn the entire congregation on its head. Without giving too much away, Pastor Paul has returned from a conference of pastors for whichever denomination he subscribes to, with an epiphany of theology which he feels he needs to bring to his mega flock. It just so happens that he is bringing this message on the very day that the church is celebrating paying off the debt on their new wonderful worship center. So what should be a glorious day of congratulations and atta-boys, quickly turns into an uncomfortable situation.
What follows is an hour-long examination of the effects, personal, spiritual, and economic of Pastor Paul’s new vision of theology. Playwright Lucas Hnath is masterful in his script portraying the tension created between Pastor Paul, his Associate Pastor, Joshua, his wife and the elder member of the church board. Associate Pastor Joshua takes issue with this theological turn. The two men quote Scripture in the ensuing argument, which culminates in Joshua leaving the church and taking with him the members who don’t approve of the change either. Then the fallout starts. Hnath never really takes sides in the debate but expertly presents valid arguments from both sides throughout the 90 minutes of the show. I constantly found myself thinking, “Yes, that’s the way it should be,” and then five minutes later after listening to the reasoning from the other side thinking the exact same thing.
The entire play is done Greek Tragedy style, complete with a chorus. Yes a real chorus, a church choir made up of some 30 volunteers from different choirs around the area that does exactly what a Greek Chorus is supposed to do. It keeps the audience on track and kind of makes sure that you are aware of what you saw is actually what you thought you saw. The play is actually structured much like Antigone, in that a person made an unpopular decision with great conviction and must learn to deal with the consequences of that decision in a very public forum. As a matter of fact, the original schism happens on the pulpit during Sunday Service and is played out in this mega church where the audience is actually part of the action as the congregation. As the play moves forward you realize you are no longer the congregation but the audience looking in on more intimate aspects of these people’s lives then, once again, the drama is being played out in the public realm of the church and we are once again the congregation. Don’t worry, there are no altar calls or passing of the collection plate.
Director Joel Ferrell does a great job avoiding stereotypes that could so easily be wound up in this story. Pastor Paul while being highly successful as a preacher is not a caricature of a southern televangelist, with the over-the-top personality and this is a good thing. Actually, none of the characters could be pigeon-holed into easy-to-play PTL style people, they are real and their struggle is real. The play is set in “America.” Not Texas, or the deep south or any other place where Hollywood likes to set stories like this.
The set is static. When you walk into the Kalita Humphreys Theatre you might as well be walking into any evangelical church you’ve ever been in. There are four clunky wooden chairs with overly padded seats up front, mic stands with color-coded wireless mics, and a choir loft with a synthesizer/organ in front of it ready for the worship service. The set never changes but it doesn’t have to. This is a classic Greek story where conflict is worked out in the PUBLIC forum. It so happens that this forum is a church.
Chamblee Ferguson, a member of DTC’s Brierley Resident Acting Company, gives Pastor Paul real life and fully believable tension as he struggles to move forward with this new idea of his amid growing backlash from his friends, family, and peers. The “big personality” aspect of preachers in mega churches is so downplayed with him it had me wondering by the end of the show how exactly he grew a church from a storefront gathering of 20 people to the mega-church it has become. He is unsure of what to say and when to say it and sometimes I think that was more because he was unsure of his lines than emoting. Still, his is a solid performance.
Tyrees Allen and Steven Michael Walters as the church elder and Associate Pastor Joshua respectively, provide solid support as the counterpoints to Pastor Paul’s new assertion of theology. I thoroughly believed the conviction of Pastor Joshua when he expresses the reasons as to why he must disagree with Pastor Paul. With him, I felt a true sense of compassion that can only be brought on by the most pointedly perfect portrayal of a character.
Lindsay Ryan, an SMU Theatre student is wonderful as a young, somewhat confused, choir member that has some real pertinent questions she needs answered by Pastor Paul. I will enjoy seeing her again and again in several roles to come.
The true bright spot for me was Christian Clark as the pastor’s wife. She more than any other character is truly torn by her love for Pastor Paul and her belief of theology that suddenly has been uprooted with her husband’s change of view. Ms. Clark shows us the torment that any of us would feel going through such a crisis of faith versus fidelity. It’s been a short year so far but hers is definitely the best performance I’ve seen this year and she will be on my top five list for 2017.
What truly sets “The Christians” apart is that it is NOT a play about a church, nor theology, nor anything so trivial. This could have easily been a story of a band splitting up or a corporate entity dividing into parts or even something as mundane as a divorce. Hnath is doing what great playwrights do: he is exploring human motivations and relationships with a sometimes-painful commitment to honesty that supersedes his own prejudices and lets the characters live and breathe as real human beings. This play will evoke emotions and opinions for everybody in the audience and might even start debates between you and others and maybe between you and, well, you. As Pastor Paul says in the last line of the show, “Don’t answer now. We can work it out later.”
Now playing at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas Jan. 26 – Feb. 19
I’m really looking forward to seeing this show, especially after reading the script about a year ago. Thanks for the insightful review, Mr. Buswold!