Playwrights: Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson. At: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Tickets: 773-753-4472 or www.courttheatre.org; $45-$65. Runs through: April 19
Right-wing Christians are notorious for insisting that the text of The Bible is the unquestionable word of God. But out playwrights Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson smartly and artistically argue otherwise in their fantastical time-shifting drama The Good Book, now making an impressive world premiere at Court Theatre.
O'Hare and Peterson previously scored a massive success at Court with back-to-back season stagings of An Iliad, so it's great that the two were invited back to explore another influential ( and much more contentious ) world text. Peterson also directs the production with plenty of panache against the starkly modernistic unit set by designer Rachel Hauck.
The Good Book doesn't recreate Biblical stories, but rather imagines and dramatizes key moments in the evolution and crafting of Biblical texts throughout history via scenes featuring a quintet of fine actors ( Allen Gilmore, Erik Hellman, Kareem Bandealy, Jacqueline Williams and Emjoy Gavino ). So you have scenes like Hebrew-to-Greek translators arguing about which sacred scrolls should be included, to Princeton Theological Society scholars in 1986 questioning the scrubbing of gender-specific pronouns.
The theatrical style of these scenes also varies, ranging from the sung interlude to glorify the beauty and tedium of hand-drawn medieval illuminated manuscripts ( fancifully illustrated with plenty of Celtic swirls by projection designer Mike Tutaj ) to the vaudevillian salesmanship of 19th century big-tent revival meetings.
To humanize these historically inspired scenes, O'Hare and Peterson create two modern-day Americans with their own faith-challenging conflicts tied to The Bible.
Right out of the gate is the current-day Biblical scholar and college professor Miriam ( a commanding Hollis Resnik ) who teaches ( and does battle with ) undergrad students while also working on her own soon-to-be-published research. Then there's also Connor ( a wonderfully idiosyncratic Alex Weisman ), who is a 15-year-old in 1975 who is obsessive/compulsive about keeping audio cassette diaries detailing his grand ambitious to become a Catholic priest.
Weisman is particularly good at showing Connor's sense of betrayal as his growing awareness of his sexuality comes into direct conflict with what he's been taught. Resnik also is adept at showing Miriam's struggle to reconcile her secular beliefs when her character faces down death.
The Good Book entertains, no doubt. But vitally, it also prods audiences to think about how faith and beliefs get spread, codified and changed through the centuries.
