Playwright: Tracy Letts. At: Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr. Tickets: 773-728-7529; www.redtwist.org; $25-$30. Runs through: April 24
Early in Man from Nebraska, a Baptist preacher describes a believer's journey as one of "conversion, baptism and Christian growth." Almost immediately, Christian growth becomes the focus as Ken Carpenter, devout middle-aged Nebraska grandfather, awakens one night completely unnerved, having lost his life-long faith in a moment of awesome revelation as powerful as revelations that inspire faith, and just as inexplicable.
Ken doubts that God exists and wonders if humanity is any better with God than without. Unable to explain himself to his wife and daughter, Ken nonetheless understands that he's a believer because he was raised as a believer, and not because he (or his wife or children) went through conversion prior to baptism, let alone the sort of revelation that inspires faith. "Can you explain the stars?" he asks his concerned wife, Nancy.
From numerous versions of the Faust legend to David Mamet's Edmond, scores of plays portray men who give up secure but unsatisfying lives in pursuit of power, pleasure, riches, knowledge or some other "freedom." Man from Nebraska isn't the first to break the constraints of religious devotion as its premise. Like Faust and Edmond, Ken Carpenter goes on a literal and figurative journey, heading to London where he samples the pleasures of alcohol, drugs, sex anduhsculpting. He embraces and enjoys his new freedom but he finds them no more fulfilling than his previous circumscribed but secure life. Forced to return to his wife, Ken asks her to begin a journey with him to ... something unknown, but something human and to be shared.
Eschewing the semi-gothic violence and quirkiness for which he's known, author Tracy Letts wrestles with fundamental metaphysical questions in a quiet voice. He no more arrives at answers than anyone else, but he poses the questions and doubts through tremendously effective, revealing, pithy and sometimes moving dialogue laid over a cinematic flow of short scenes. Act I beautifully renders a character in crisis. Alas, Act II abandons character in favor of exploring thesis (and becomes increasingly improbable), but the audience retains its sympathy for KenEverymanbecause he never loses his inherent decency.
Director Andrew Jessop's fine cast gives Man from Nebraska an earnest, direct reading that embraces the tenderness with which Letts treats his characters. There is wistfulness in Chuck Spencer's Ken, a longing that is universal and palpable. Jan Ellen Graves plays Nancy Carpenter's mixed bewilderment and anger well. The supporting cast breaths life into the other characters, all colorfully sketched by Letts (sometimes in comic strip strokes) but none fully dimensional. The frequent scene changes aren't congenial to Redtwist's low-tech space, but Stephen H. Carmody's rough-hewn setstrewn with Christian iconsand Christopher Burpee's lighting deliver simple and swift solutions.