Samuel D. Hunter’s play The Case for the Existence of God, in a production directed by Ted Dykstra, opened at Coal Mine Theatre on Thursday night.  It’s a story about the somewhat unlikely friendship between two would be single fathers in a small town in Idaho.  It’s mostly pretty sad but with some really funny moments.  We can come back to the God thing.

Keith (Mazin Elsadig) is a black gay mortgage broker from a well to do middle class family.  He has a little girl that he is “fostering to adopt” though there are issues with her biological father and, though it’s not made explicit, a single gay guy adopting in a conservative and religious state.  Ryan (Noah Reid) is what once used to be referred to when I worked in the southern US as “white trash” (now they are referred to as “senator” and “judge”).  His parents were both addicts.  H’e estranged from his mother and his father died when he was nine.  He works in a yoghurt plant.  He’s in the process of splitting up with his more educated wife who wants sole custody of their daughter.

Ryan and Keith meet at their daughters’ day-care and bond over Ryan’s need for a loan to buy back land that belonged to his great grandparents.  His financial case is hopeless as, it turns out, are the prospects of the two men keeping much, if any, contact with the girls.  A drink sodden and tumultuous friendship plays out against a backdrop of institutional indifference though the cleverly staged and surprising ending suggests some sort of redemption.

Technically, as theatre, it’s excellent.  The scenes are run together with just enough cues to let us work out that time has passed.  The acting is superb.  There’s a wonderful awkwardness about how each stage of the relationship between Ryan and Keith is negotiated and when things go badly wrong, as they do, there’s some spectacularly explosive acting.  All of this plays out in a “cube” that serves as various spaces delineated by changes of props and subtle lighting cues (both Nick Blais) and an atmospheric sound design (Aaron Jensen).  It’s slick in a good way.

Is there a “spiritual” dimension to the two men’s attempt to be fathers?  I don’t know.  It probably depends a lot on the viewer’s background and experience.  Does it make a “Case for the Existence of God”?  Like most such arguments it’s probably more compelling if one imagines God as a malevolent trickster rather than wise and benevolent.

A Case for the Existence of God runs at Coal Mine Theatre until December 1st.

Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann