“I get so lonely here by myself with my family,” remarks someone in God Said This, a new play that may well ring a few bells of recognition with anybody who ever felt like an outsider among their kin.
Of course, the unhappy bunch that Leah Nanako Winkler writes about is “unhappy in its own way,” as Tolstoy put it.
Much of this contemporary family’s current troubles center upon its wife and mother, Masako (Ako), who is enduring chemotherapy for an aggressive cancer.
The pain that persists from past years was caused by the husband and father, James (Jay Patterson), once a raging drunk before sobering up and getting passionate about collecting rocks. His testimonies before an Alcoholics Anonymous group provides the play with exposition and serio-comical commentary.
The younger of two 30-something daughters, Sophie (Emma Kikue), is a born-again Christian. The self-absorbed elder sibling, Hiro (Satomi Blair), long since living in New York City and who especially harbors bad feelings for James, is making her first visit to their rural Kentucky homeland in seven years in order to spend time with her ailing mom. Hiro is the one who feels like an outsider, as well she might.
That’s the situation for God Said This, which opened Tuesday at the Cherry Lane Theatre. According to a program note for this Primary Stages production—the play premiered in the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2018—the playwright drew upon some personal experiences to create this engaging, if unexceptional, dramedy.
Let’s note that Masako is of Japanese origin and James is a native Kentuckian. While the play does not address potential issues regarding mixed-race families living in the boondocks, some of its story strives to subvert stereotypes involving Asian women, country yokels, and rigid Christians.
Matters darken as Masako reacts poorly to her treatment. The disaffected sisters eventually reach a better understanding of each other as well as of their father. The fond give-and-take between sunshiny Masako and curmudgeonly James is sweetly depicted. No soul-shattering epiphanies are realized during the 100-minute course of this gentle play, although James’ account of his initial encounter with Masako in San Francisco provides a poignant conclusion.
Brightening the story with some laughter are several scenes outside of the hospital that Hiro shares with John (Tom Coiner), a bluff acquaintance from high school. John is a bull-in-the-china-shop type dude who has forged a better life through being a single dad. John’s devotion to his boy contrasts against James’ poor parenting of his girls.
Since the story regards mother-daughter-sister relationships more than otherwise, it’s curious that the two male figures have been developed with richer detail and color than the women.
Morgan Gould directed the play’s premiere in Louisville and stages it here with the original company. The production and its design are competent rather than inspired, as are the performances, although Tom Coiner’s grouchy portrait of an accidental yuppie is immensely funny.
