“The Christians” Sparks Heavenly Debate

Evan Whitfield and Fune Tautala in The Christians (Dangerpants Photography)

The Christians

Pony World Theatre

October 11 - 13: Plymouth Congregational Church, 1217 6th Ave. (Wheelchair accessible.) All shows are Pay-What-You-Can and ½ of ticket sales will benefit Lambert House!

October 17 - 26: St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 1610 S King St. (Sorry, NOT Wheelchair accessible)

While watching the masterful Lucas Hnath play, The Christians, unfold in a real church, it occurred to me that you could probably rather neatly divide the world into two camps: those who believe in Hell and those who don’t. It’s a pretty big issue, especially to fundamentalist churches, where many or most of them preach particularly that those who don’t believe in Jesus are doomed to Hell, and therefore family members with different beliefs could end up in different afterlives from each other.

That idea – being in different afterlives than other relatives you love – is a pretty big part of the imperative to make sure your relatives believe what you believe. It’s so important that it can dictate what kind of church or community you belong to, even if all the choices are “Christian” and if all the attendees “believe in Jesus as their lord and savior.”

Hnath has written a play that explores these issues between believers. It’s a disarming slice-of-life play, much of which feels like real conversations between real people. In a way, it’s almost too low-key. Even as events seem to spiral out of control, no one in the play becomes overwrought. That may seem like a flaw to you, or it may be an aspect you like very much.

We meet Pastor Paul (Evan Whitfield in a role that is perfect for his everyman, understated delivery) on a big day for the congregation. This now-mega-church, with “thousands of seats, classrooms for Sunday school, a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool,” which started from poor and small beginnings, has fincurred a huge debt from growing so large and building the beautiful surroundings. Paul announces the debt has finally been paid.

But Paul has another story to tell about an incident he heard about that has changed his attitude and understanding about the fundamentals of Hell. He decides that the congregation is no longer the kind that believes in Hell. He’s ready to clarify that the Hell named in Biblical teachings (Gehenna or Gehinom) is actually referencing a garbage pit outside of Jerusalem, and not a place of afterlife torment, at all.

As congregants strive to understand the changes this requires, Assistant Pastor Joshua (Fune Tautala) finds himself unable to agree and that he must therefore leave the church. Now, congregants like Jenny (Pilar O’Connell), church elder Jay (Mark Fullerton), and ultimately Paul’s wife, Elizabeth (Sunam Ellis) and his child all have to grapple with the fallout.

As tautly directed by Leah Adcock-Starr, for Pony World Theatre, all the conversations are real and reasonable. Difficult, tense, conflicted, searching, questioning. Each actor does lovely work portraying these characters realistically. No character is perfect, but every character is someone each audience member might relate to.

Every argument on each side of this issue seems to be playing out in the short 90-minute play. Which argument is made better is likely something you decide based on whether you are a “Hell” believer or not, yourself.

A convention used at Hnath’s direction is that every moment of dialogue is made through a microphone. In an echoey church, it’s hard to hear sometimes and after about a third of the script, Hnath inserts “he said” and “she said” as commentary that Pastor Paul adds to the dialogue which removes it from immediacy.

A surprising script aspect for Pastor Paul, as a character, is his apparent lack of transparency with anyone at the church prior to making this bonfire of a speech, including his wife. Toward the end of the play, we find out the impact of that decision-set on her and their family and it’s not a fun one for him.

A church choir and a real choir director, Beth Ann Bonnecroy, add to the atmosphere as they lead the audience in songs, with lyric sheets at hand. With all this reality around you, it’s easy to feel like you’re a congregant, as well.

If you are turned on by ideas, if your spiritual quest leads you to conundrums like these, you’ll be very happy to attend this service! It’s quite likely that you and your companion will have a great argument or two over the ideas presented, which for some people is their idea of Heaven.

For more information, go to www.ponyworld.org.