A philosophical look at the suffering of single fathers
A Case for the Existence of God sounds like a theology class I might have taken at Georgetown, my alma mater: St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, and Martin Buber on one side; Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus on the other. Topic: Camus’ paradox about what kind of God allows for the suffering of children, etc.
But no, “A Case…” is the title of a 90-minute two-hander by Samuel D. Hunter that poses a more modest take on Camus: What kind of God is it that allows for the suffering of single fathers? Mr. Hunter is best known for “The Whale” and last season’s “Little Bear Ridge Road” on Broadway. He is a miniaturist, painting small, painful encounters of ordinary folk who, pressed to the max, try to survive in a world with bad options. God is found in the grace given them to meet their struggles.
Ryan and Keith are single dads who connect at day care. Ryan, ripped from “Hillbilly Elegy” headlines, is recently divorced and barely holds down a factory job (but has written an unpublished novel), yet wants to buy the land that was his great-grandfather’s property so that his infant daughter can have a home.
He turns to Keith, a single, Black, gay mortgage broker, for help. Keith, for reasons that are never really clear, is trying to adopt a baby girl. Keith and Ryan realize they were at high school at the same time, bond over late-night bourbon, and support each other through their inevitable losses (the farm and the adoption). In the end, we find out that everything turns out okay. It’s a small story, told in an intimate space, with two touching performances. John Perrin Flynn (who recently directed Hunter’s “Grangeville”) directs with obvious compassion for Hunter’s characters and the world, godless or not, in which they are trapped.
Rogue Machine at the Matrix; 323-852-1445, matrixtheatre.com; to Sun., Oct. 11.
Most adaptations in the theater are of books (“Nicholas Nickleby”) or films (“Paranormal Activity”). Updating a play into a newer script generally means the adaptors don’t trust the audience to sit through pages of exposition or outdated language, plots, and stereotypes. But more often than not the updating comes at the cost of the playwright’s worldview.
“ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” at the Odyssey Theater. Photo by Cooper Bates
Bart DeLorenzo’s update of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People (at the Odyssey through Sun., Sept. 27) keeps Ibsen’s “one man against the majority” theme, but, given the recent Congressional grilling of Dr. Fauci, or the polarizing worlds of vaxxers and anti-vaxxers, lacks the punch that Arthur Miller’s 1950s, anti-McCarthy update had.
Here, the young scientist is forced into an unpleasant world of political compromise. The “enemy,” as in Ibsen’s original, are the nice, liberal people who would rather look away, even from the pollution in their own backyards, as the truth-teller vows to fight on. Ibsen’s famous last line, that “the strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone” gets lost in an adaptation that lacks Ibsen’s moral core.
Odyssey, 310-477-2055; odysseytheatre.com.
Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt transported Ibsen’s Nordic villagers to a nameless middle-European town for his 1956 drama, The Visit. The same conundrum applies: a dying town can be saved by a visit from the world’s richest woman, but there’s a catch: the town must execute a leading citizen, who jilted and shamed the woman when they were young lovers. Of course the town says no, then maybe, and finally, yes, it will sell its soul for cash.
Originally, Dürrenmatt was critiquing the look-the-other way convenience of Swiss neutrality during World War II. The 1964 film, with Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, played up the “woman scorned” aspect. Director Darko Tresnjak’s update puts the focus squarely on our modern mega-billionaires who believe money can buy them anything, from a town to a life to immortality.
But neither the slick production nor the strong performances from Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton are enough to update the creaky absurdities of Dürrenmatt’s post-war script.
I mean, we are stopping the data centers… aren’t we?
Pasadena Playhouse, through Sun., Oct. 4; 626-356-7529; pasadenaplayhouse.org.
What To Watch For
José Rivera’s Obie-winning, darkly funny fable “Marisol” runs to Sun., Oct. 24, at the Open Fist Theater in Atwater Village; 323-882-6912; openfist.org;
Bizet’s “Carmen” opens the L.A. Opera’s 2026-27 season; the production is conducted by the Opera’s new music director, Domingo Hindoyan; Sat., Oct 17, to Sat., Nov. 7; 213-972-8001; laopera.org;
A Noise Within presents the touching 9/11 musical “Come From Away,” about Newfoundlanders who take in stranded American airline passengers; Sun., Oct. 4, to Sun., Nov. 8; 626-356-3100; anoisewithin.org.
Category: Entertainment
