Ryan (Anthony Gooley) and Keith (Elijah Williams). Photo: Philip Erbacher.
This is one of those plays that has you thinking about it long after you have left the theatre. It is engrossing from start to finish, as we follow the lives of two seemingly quite different men and learn, bit by bit, how both of them are struggling to keep mind and body intact against the pressures of life and society.
It is set in Idaho, where Ryan (Anthony Gooley) is straight, poorly educated, awful with money and reeling from a painful divorce from the mother of his baby daughter. Desperate to secure a loan to build a home, he has gone to see Keith (Elijah Williams), a mortgage broker who is polished and successful, financially savvy and the gay single foster parent of a little girl. Their initial interactions verge on comic as Ryan struggles to understand not only the financial documents, but Keith’s university vocabulary.
Keith seems assured, but we soon learn of cracks in his façade.
Playwright Samuel D Hunter’s scenes are short but pithy, separated by the stop/start flickering of a fluorescent tube light overhead. The action takes place on a box-like set (designer Veronique Benett), which constrains the players physically just as they are caged emotionally – either by financial worries or societal concerns, as well as by obstacles both face in achieving their dreams of fatherhood. These fears and pains are exposed incrementally – we discover Ryan’s family has a history of mental instability; Keith’s sexual orientation now threatens the thing he most wants in the world, to adopt his foster daughter – and build into complex layers of misunderstandings and revelations that has the audience desperate for both men to achieve their goals. And to understand each other better.
Gooley and Williams make us believe in their characters absolutely. Craig Baldwin directs performances that are subtle and nuanced, as well as – at times – quite harrowing. (A word Ryan learns early on from Keith.) Both men are running scared – of life and what it can throw it them. Big things, small things. When the freezer in Ryan’s rental packs up, he is distraught: it means he can’t even give his little daughter a popsicle, the one thing she asks for when she visits. He has failed as a father.
This work won Hunter the 2022 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play and was named one of the best plays of that year by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Time Out New York. As many people around the world struggle with cost of living increases and family breakdowns, The Case for the Existence of God shines a light on themes of financial insecurity, parenthood and what is possible when we truly open up to someone else.
‘I really hope the audience leaves with a sense of hope,’ says Hunter. ‘But a kind of hope that isn’t twee or simplistic, a kind of hope that is complex and hard-won.’
The Case for the Existence for God is brought to the Reginald Theatre by Outhouse Theatre, whose recent works at the Seymour Centre include Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Ulster American and Consent. All are provocative and thought-provoking pieces of theatre. The Case for the Existence of God closes soon so catch it if you can and, if you can’t, let’s hope it returns for another season.
Until May 4th May 2024
Duration: 90 minutes, no interval
Tickets: $38-$54
More: https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/a-case-for-the-existence-of-god/ or (02) 7255 1561
