[Author’s note. This is a review of the theater play “The God Game” put on by Stark Naked Theater in Houston. As always this will contain spoilers so you may want to skip this post.]
I am coming to like minimalist theater more and more. Set dressing doesn’t add that much to the performances and the material being presented and I think that is the point of live theater. I mean you can go to a movie for big budget effects and impressive visuals but in these smaller minimalist theaters the content of the play is what captivates the audience. The Stark Naked theater company does an admirable job in this respect. Using little to no set dressing they provide entertaining stories and plots that rival those being put on by the bigger theater companies in Houston’s theater district. I’ve been more and more impressed by the level of professionalism and their performances each time that I go.
The God Game is no exception. The play is set in a small house in Virginia. A Senator (Tom) and his wife (Lisa) are planning their wedding anniversary when an old friend (Matt) shows up. Matt is a political activist and wants to get Tom to run as Vice president with a political opponent with extremely opposing social and political views.
Tom is not sure he wants to support this candidate as the candidate is extremely religious and Tom is an agnostic. Tom doesn’t want to compromise his principles by pretending that he is religious just to win the election. Lisa is quite religious but she and Tom have come to a modus vivendi for all their married life and this offer threatens to disrupt the couple’s carefully crafted marital peace.
In the background is a parallel subplot involving Matt who was the lover of the Senator’s brother until the brother died in a car accident. At first Lisa is cold towards Matt but as they discuss the accident they come to realize that they had no reason to be distant. She also admits that she doesn’t want Tom to run for Vice president if it means that he has to pretend to have a faith that he really doesn’t have. In her eyes this would lead to the corruption of Tom.
Matt argues that Tom could do real good and make substantive change on many other issues if only they would give in on “this one little thing”. Tom starts to come around in his thinking about pretending to have faith but Lisa gets offended by the notion. Tom explodes and admits that he is not an agnostic but a full-blown atheist and does not believe at all. Lisa storms out of the room but returns and declares that she will support Tom in his candidacy but will not be a party to any sort of fraud.
In the final scene Tom stands with Lisa declaring his candidacy for vice president. He takes a question about his faith from a reporter. As he tries to invent a noncommittal answer that would give the impression that he was religious he finds that he cannot. Instead he asks the voters and the audience that instead of asking about his faith, why not have faith in him.
It’s a very powerful play and asks many questions. How do our ideas of faith come out in daily life and in our work? What principles are we willing to shed to accomplish something greater? How do we live and interact with others that believe in different things than we do? Very thought-provoking.
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