A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD – Rogue Machine Theatre
Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
Rogue Machine did it again – staged another sensationally compelling play, with a provocative title and impressive performances by two powerful actors. Carlo Mancasola (Ryan) and Nicholas Anthony Reid (Keith) allow their voices and emotions to express every nuance of their fears, needs, hopes, expectations and love.
My interest in seeing this play was piqued as soon as I heard the title, ‘A Case for the Existence of God,’ written by playwright Samuel D. Hunter, and directed by John Perrin Flynn. I dropped everything to see it on opening night. Hunter described the title as being “as big as a cathedral, and then you walk in and there are two guys sitting in a cubicle talking about mortgages for a really long time.” The enormous title and the tiny subject are a deliberate incongruity, allowing the audience to explore the story as it expands, and look for meaning in the grandiose title.
“The play slowly grows and expands, and by the end, it is trying to be worthy of its title,” notes Hunter. Nothing hidden in a theological argument within the piece. It’s for each viewer to discover from their own experience of the play.
In an interview with American Theatre, Hunter was asked directly, “Where did this play come from and what’s that title about?”
The starting point was intensely ordinary: Hunter and his husband were simultaneously trying to buy an apartment and adopt a child. Both are middle-class aspirations, but Hunter found the processes extraordinarily difficult. That made him think about how strange contemporary American life has become: things that are supposed to constitute a normal, stable life—a home, a family, security—can feel impossibly difficult to attain.
Then he had the idea for the play: two men sitting in a cubicle, essentially not moving, talking about a mortgage. Hunter initially thought … this isn’t a play. Then he came up with the title.
Hunter has said that he wouldn’t necessarily call the play religious, but he would call it spiritual: it’s about searching for greater meaning in an extraordinarily difficult present.
In a small office where lives are measured in credit scores, two strangers – quite different, separated by race, class, sexuality, education, find themselves returning to the same conversation. Keith, a mortgage broker raising his daughter alone, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker determined to reclaim a piece of his family’s lost land, meet as client and lender. What unfolds is an unexpected friendship between two fathers navigating a “certain kind of sadness.” The story exposes an extraordinary humanity hidden within ordinary lives.
Hunter has said that he wanted to write about platonic male friendship. He felt that popular culture often gives men two highly conventional ways of relating to each other: competition/violence or sexual intimacy. We’re not very good at representing men simply becoming emotionally intimate friends.
The play may be suggesting God is hidden inside the supposedly insignificant chores of daily life: trying to get a mortgage, a custody hearing, raising a child – those things seem tiny compared with “the existence of God.” But maybe Hunter puts them next to that cosmic question and says: Look harder.
Artistic Director, Guillermo Cienfuegos contributed a note, Rogue Machine has made its reputation on presenting theatre that pushes boundaries. I see this play as a continuation of that mission – and submit it as an affirmation of the radical act of choosing hope and kindness over cynicism and fear.’
I see spirituality and the existence of God in everything, because God is love, and love is God, and that manifests especially in the scene where two dads are watching over their little girls in the park. The admiration, concern, and love for those two little souls are so powerful; I saw the existence of God in their eyes, the tone of their voices, and their body language.
A Case for the Existence of God opened at Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, L.A. CA 90046, on September 5 and it runs until October 11. The performances are upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage, on Fridays and Mondays at 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 5pm. There is no performances on Monday Sept 14. Suggested age is 14+. Post-Show Talkbacks are on September 19, 24 and 27.