Playwright: Robert Askins. At: Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-871-3000; VictoryGardens.org; $27-$60. Runs through: Oct. 23
Hand to God, set in Bible Belt Texas, is a bitterly comic look at loss and Christianity in which a demonically possessed puppet takes over the thoughts and actions of an adolescent puppeteer, Jason ( Alex Weisman ).
It concerns Jason and his mother, Margery ( Janelle Snow ), whose father/husband died of a heart attack six months earlier. Reacting to her unexpected loneliness, Margery has organized a youth puppet ministry at the local church and recruited Jason as a participant along with horny bad boy Timothy ( Curtis Edward Jackson ) and teenage Jessica ( Nina Ganet ). All the participants, oddly, are adolescents vs. younger children. Jason creates a Kermit-like frog hand puppet, Tyronea scabrous, evil, foul-mouthed fiend who plays easily on Jason's weaknesses, desires and fears. Is Jason himself releasing his inner evil twin? Or is it actual demonic possession? Author Robert Askins lets you decide.
Jason/Tyrone is the star role, and Weismanalready a distinguished actor at just 29is brilliant, creating for Tyrone a different voice and delivery even as Weisman's own facial and body expressions remain those of Jason attempting to resist Tyrone. But Jason/Tyrone is the antagonist, not the crucial character. Margery is the hero, once she realizes that Jason, too, is lonely, in shock and needy which she has failed to understand in her own selfish grief. Only then can the battle for Jason's soul begin, with Margery assisted independently by Jessica in a mutual crush with Jason.
Hand to God intentionally amuses and shocks audiences through its blasphemous humor and lurid touches of Grand Guignol, a turn-of-the-last-century French theater troupe that titillated viewers with realistic depictions of beheadings, maiming, torture, impalements and other bloody mayhem. The play is kinda-sorta one part Muppets, one part The Exorcist and one part Grand Guignol. For me, the final blood-letting is a step too much, not because of its vividness but because the story seems to be over by then.
Askins also has created a double play. The human play is about grief, loss and the anger of abandonment when someone dies unexpectedly. The intellectual play is Askins' bitter attack on Christianity. It's something of a shotgun wedding as Jason and Margery's problems are not rooted in religion, nor does religion help solve them. Jason is a good boy, but there's no evidence that he's devout. Askins then adds the overlay of sexual urgency, with teenage Timothy and self-serving Pastor Greg ( Eric Slater ) making equally inappropriate plays for Margery.
As staged by the expert Gary Griffin and with Joe Shermoly's clever revolving scenic design, Hand to God has speed, surprise, fine performances and even absurdity, but I can't help feeling that once you remove the shock value, there's less here than meets the eye.