By Joel Applegate
I love the Rose Wagner’s black box theater. It was evident from the spare set and two walls that for this production of A Bright New Boise, the play’s the thing. Nothing fancy. What is a play? People in motion telling a story. True to their mission of choosing works that “engage, stimulate and entertain,” Wasatch Theatre Company chose well in telling this poignant, very funny, and harrowing tale of faith gone awry. This play won New York’s OBIE award for playwriting in 2011.
Director Jim Martin and his sound designer, Amy Allred, set the tone with a great playlist of tunes from start to finish, with “My Own Private Idaho” logically winding toward Joan Osborne’s “What If God Was One of Us.” At first, it seems we’re about to watch a sardonically quaint slice of life with some quirky characters in out-of-the-way Boise, Idaho. But the play takes us deeper and deeper into the life of our lead, Will, whose flight from a church scandal undoes more than just himself. Brian C. Pilling takes Will from nondescript to dangerous in a performance that increases in power and carries playwright Sam Hunter’s profound theme of faith bumping up against modern life.
Will, arriving in Boise, gets hired by Pauline in one of Hobby Lobby’s barely urban outposts (at a sinful wage of $7.25 an hour!) Sallie Cooper nails Pauline from her first speech. The interview she conducts only hints at the rough edge and determined pride Cooper so beautifully lashes at later on. Holding on to all she’s built as a store manager, Pauline literally curses her own morality into being. It’s her way of exorcising dysfunction. Pairing conflict resolution with a side of profanity is a hoot.
Will, scrubbed on the outside and the inside, finds us unprepared for the bomb he drops on Alex, a teenage cashier at the store. Is the abuse Alex talks about real or imagined? CJ Strong as Alex has a great connection with himself, never going over the top, though the role would tempt many an actor to blow it up. He is an interesting performer. Even when he does almost nothing, we see him wrestling to repair his broken soul.
Will encounters others at the store, too: a quietly composed Haley McCormick as Anna. Like Strong, she connects to her inner self with understated skill. Neither Will nor Anna has anywhere to go. They escape into blogs and books.
Will’s caustic co-worker, Leroy, has no need to hide from anything or anyone. At first, the play fools us into thinking Leroy is a caricature. But Gordon Dunn demands us to “take me as I am,” doing a terrific job hiding Leroy’s deliberately dark commitment to protecting the fragile Alex.
Any play about religion is fraught – especially in Utah. There’s a wonderful natural ease in the performances of most of this highly skilled cast – except Pilling as Will – uptight and tightly wound pleading for Jesus to show up “now – now!” Is it a paradox to try to rebuild a faith once broken by its very practice? After we get to know the characters, the playwright takes us on a deep dive into the meaning of being, a great feat to pull off with such earthily drawn souls. Hunter juxtaposes the irrational events of both faith and the world, exploring not only what we believe, but why we believe it.
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And so, A Bright New Boise is more about identity than religion. It’s easy enough to adopt a mythology to explain life or provide purpose. Anna tells a briefly doubting Will, “You can just believe in something else.” But Will has nothing to believe in but a holy fire that will negate the earth he is standing on. It’s a devil of a choice. To him, identity is evangelism. He cannot embrace another way of thinking without the terror of losing his soul. He must believe in greater things than this mere world. We leave him praying for all of it to be burned to ash.
Here’s a link to learn more about this interesting playwright, Samuel D. Hunter: http://2ndstorytheatre.com/prodigals-samuel-d-hunters-a-bright-new-boise-2011/
Wasatch Theatre Company presents A Bright New Boise
September 1st thru 17th, 2016: Thur, Fri, Sat at 8 pm, with Matinees on Sept 10 & 17 at 2 pm. General Admission: $20.00
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 West 300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101. Phone (801) 446-5657
www.wasatchtheatre.org Ticketing Information: www.artix.org
Email: wasatchtheatre@hotmail.com
Contains adult language.
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